Qualifying Rainout Puts Larson On Daytona Cup Pole

Kyle Larson, seen here from an earlier race weekend, will start from the pole in Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway after Friday’s qualifying session was rained out. Photo: Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Kyle Larson will start on the pole for Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series race after rain at Daytona International Speedway on Friday forced cancellation of qualifying for the final regular-season race.

Larson won last Sunday at Watkins Glen and topped the Daytona field according to metrics, which by rule are used to order the field in case of a cancellation.

Regular-season champion Chase Elliott will start beside his Hendrick Motorsports teammate on the front row. Joey Logano and Daniel Suarez will take the green flag from the third and fourth positions.

Given the withdrawal of Kurt Busch from Playoff competition because of lingering concussion symptoms, there are now two Playoff spots available in the final regular-season race. Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex, Jr. currently hold positions 15 and 16 on points, with Blaney maintaining a 25-point edge entering Saturday’s race.

Truex will start 12th on Saturday night and Blaney 15th. But it’s not as if those drivers don’t have something to worry about. Any one of 13 drivers below them in the standings could steal one of the remaining Playoff spots with a victory.

Seven of those 13 competitors — Aric Almirola, Brad Keselowski, Erik Jones, Justin Haley, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Michael McDowell and Austin Dillon — have Daytona victories on their resumes.

Also part of the group of 13 is Bubba Wallace, Kurt Busch’s teammate. Wallace has three runner-up finishes in 10 Daytona starts, including the last two races at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.

Chris Buescher doesn’t have a points win at Daytona, but he and teammate Keselowski won their respective Duel 150-mile qualifying races at the track in February. Buescher starts eighth — closest to the front among eligible drivers below the Playoff cut line.

“I guess I can’t say I’m shocked by the way this weekend is starting,” Buescher said. “We definitely knew today was pretty rough on radar. I guess with that it does give us a pretty good starting spot for Daytona, but if there’s any race that’s not track-position sensitive, this is it.

“That being said. It’s good to have a good spot. I know we’re going to have a fast race car… We’ve got to be smart about it, we’ve got to be clean and take the speed that we know we’ll have and make something out of it.”

NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, FL
Coke Zero Sugar 400 – August 27, 2022

Saturday Night’s Starting Line Up

Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed
1. 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 0.000 0.000
2. 9 Chase Elliott A SHOC Chevrolet 0.000 0.000
3. 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 0.000 0.000
4. 99 Daniel Suarez Freeway Insurance Chevrolet 0.000 0.000
5. 20 Christopher Bell Rheem Toyota 0.000 0.000
6. 8 Tyler Reddick Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet 0.000 0.000
7. 4 Kevin Harvick Mobil 1 Ford 0.000 0.000
8. 17 Chris Buescher Fifth Third Bank Ford 0.000 0.000
9. 34 Michael McDowell Horizon Hobby Ford 0.000 0.000
10. 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 0.000 0.000
11. 43 Erik Jones FOCUSfactor Chevrolet 0.000 0.000
12. 1 Ross Chastain Jockey Chevrolet 0.000 0.000
13. 19 Martin Truex, Jr. Bass Pro Shops Toyota 0.000 0.000
14. 2 Austin Cindric # Menards/Maytag Ford 0.000 0.000
15. 41 Cole Custer Autodesk/HaasTooling.com Ford 0.000 0.000
16. 12 Ryan Blaney Advance Auto Parts Ford 0.000 0.000
17. 24 William Byron Axalta Chevrolet 0.000 0.000
18. 31 Justin Haley LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet 0.000 0.000
19. 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Cares Toyota 0.000 0.000
20. 47 Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. Kroger/NOS Chevrolet 0.000 0.000
21. 3 Austin Dillon BREZTRI Chevrolet 0.000 0.000
22. 18 Kyle Busch Interstate Batteries Toyota 0.000 0.000
23. 45 Ty Gibbs(i) Monster Energy Toyota 0.000 0.000
24. 6 Brad Keselowski Castrol Ford 0.000 0.000
25. 42 Ty Dillon Thorntons Chevrolet 0.000 0.000
26. 14 Chase Briscoe Mahindra Tractors Ford 0.000 0.000
27. 10 Aric Almirola Smithfield Ford 0.000 0.000
28. 16 Daniel Hemric(i) Cirkul Chevrolet 0.000 0.000
29. 21 Harrison Burton # Dex Imaging Ford 0.000 0.000
30. 23 Bubba Wallace DoorDash Toyota 0.000 0.000
31. 7 Corey LaJoie Built.com Chevrolet 0.000 0.000
32. 38 Todd Gilliland # First Phase Ford 0.000 0.000
33. 51 Cody Ware Nurtec ODT Ford 0.000 0.000
34. 15 David Ragan Select Blinds/Jacob Companies Ford 0.000 0.000
35. 77 Landon Cassill(i) Voyager: Crypto for All Chevrolet 0.000 0.000
36. 78 B.J. McLeod(i) NASCAR Rivals Ford 0.000 0.000
37. 62 Noah Gragson(i) Beard Motorsports/Southpoint Chevrolet 0.000 0.000