Kyle Larson will start from the pole position and lead the field to green at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night, giving the Hendrick Motorsports driver yet another opportunity to capitalize on the win he gained at Gateway. Larson did not have to post a qualifying lap to earn the top spot, though, as weather forced NASCAR to cancel Friday’s Cup Series practice and qualifying sessions. With lightning and rain moving through the area, NASCAR turned to its trusted qualifying-metric rule to set the starting order for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race.
This decision puts Larson at the front of a 37-car field for the 500-lap playoff race alongside Joey Logano, who is set to join him on the front row. Denny Hamlin starts third, followed by William Byron and Carson Hocevar, while Alex Bowman and Ross Chastain round out the next two positions. The top five are all Chase drivers, adding another layer to a race where the championship battle is already taking shape. Larson enters Bristol just nine points behind Hamlin after finishing P5 at Darlington and going on to win at World Wide Technology Raceway.
However, Larson’s pole wasn’t measured simply because he now sits second in the championship standings. NASCAR’s qualifying metric combines recent race performance with the series’ overall showing throughout the season. Keep in mind that 70% of that comes from results pulled from the most recent races, whereas the other 30 comes from the team’s position and owner standings. Regarding Kyle Larson, winning at Gateway provided the biggest piece of that, while the No. 5 team’s position in the owner standings accounted for the remaining portion.
That system becomes crucial when qualifying can’t take place because of weather or other conditions. Normally, Bristol’s pole, just like every other race, would be decided by the drivers’ qualifying performances, with each competitor getting two timed laps and the fastest lap determining the starting position. Instead, the weather nixed that entirely before drivers could lock in a lap time. NASCAR therefore used the metric already established in its rule book to set the entire lineup rather than leaving the field without a starting order.
For Larson, the result signals another advantage coming immediately Gateway breakthrough. His win last weekend ended a 51-race winless stretch and pushed him into second in the Chase standings. Now the No. 5 Chevrolet will start from the best possible position at Bristol, while Hamlin, the chase leader, starts two spots behind. Larson also has plenty of history at the Tennessee short track, having won three Cup races there.
Yet, starting from the pole is only the beginning of what could be a long night at Bristol. The 0.533-mile short track is notorious for its tight turns, but Saturday’s race will cover 500 laps, creating 266.5 miles of racing around its high-banked concrete surface. Larson has already shown this season that he can capitalize when his Hendrick Motorsports team gives him the right car, and the win at Gateway proved that the No. 5 is entering the postseason with the right amount of speed. Leading the field gives him the best possible opening to the race, but keeping that position for 500 laps will be challenging.
Even so, Larson now has another advantage heading into one of the most important races of the Chase. He doesn’t have to push through traffic from the opening laps, and the driver directly ahead of the championship leader can control the pace from the front. The weather may have taken qualifying away from Larson and the rest of the field, but NASCAR’s metric system has placed the No. 5 in the prime spot to control the race. After finally returning to Victory Lane at Gateway, Larson will now try to turn the Bristol pole into another strong result as the championship battle continues.
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