NASCAR: Richmond starting lineup - Kevin Harvick takes pole

For the third time in five usages of the NASCAR starting lineup formula, Kevin Harvick has taken the pole position, this time for the race at Richmond Raceway.

The new NASCAR starting lineup formula continues to produce one of only two different polesitters from week to week: Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick or Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott.

These two drivers switched off taking pole positions through each of the first four usages of this formula, and that trend continued for a fifth straight race.

After Elliott started from the pole position for this past Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Harvick is set to start from the pole position for this Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway, the second race of the opening round of the four-round, 10-race playoffs.

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Harvick took the pole position for this race by having the strongest combination of his most recent race result (50% weight), his team’s position in the owner standings (35% weight), and the rank of his fastest lap in the most recent recent race (15% weight).

As the winner of the playoff opener and the leader of the standings, Harvick mathematically could have finished as low as sixth place in the fastest lap category at Darlington Raceway and taken the pole position for Saturday night’s race, irrespective of how any other drivers performed at the track “Too Tough To Tame”.

He actually could have afforded a lower rank in this category since the second place finisher of Sunday’s race (Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon) and the second place driver in the owner standings (Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin) were not the same driver.

The best race finish/owner standings combination other than Harvick’s was that of Team Penske’s Joey Logano (third place in both). Even had Logano finished with the fastest lap, which he didn’t, Harvick could have afford 12th place in that category and still taken the pole position.

Harvick still managed a top six lap time to secure the pole position for this Saturday evening’s 400-lap race around the four-turn, 0.75-mile (1.207-kilometer) oval in Richmond, Virginia.

Here is the full unofficial starting lineup for the 2020 Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway.

Starting Lineup
1st – Kevin Harvick
2nd – Joey Logano
3rd – Austin Dillon
4th – Alex Bowman
5th – William Byron
6th – Kyle Busch
7th – Denny Hamlin
8th – Kurt Busch
9th – Brad Keselowski
10th – Aric Almirola
11th – Clint Bowyer
12th – Chase Elliott
13th – Cole Custer
14th – Martin Truex Jr.
15th – Ryan Blaney
16th – Matt DiBenedetto
17th – Erik Jones
18th – Jimmie Johnson
19th – Matt Kenseth
20th – Michael McDowell
21st – Ryan Newman
22nd – Tyler Reddick
23rd – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
24th – Ryan Preece
25th – Chris Buescher
26th – Christopher Bell
27th – Ty Dillon
28th – Daniel Suarez
29th – Brennan Poole
30th – Bubba Wallace
31st – John Hunter Nemechek
32nd – J.J Yeley
33rd – Quin Houff
34th – Corey LaJoie
35th – Reed Sorenson
36th – Joey Gase
37th – Timmy Hill
38th – James Davison

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Tune in to NBC at 7:30 p.m. ET this Saturday, September 12 for the live broadcast of the Federated Auto Parts 400 from Richmond Raceway.

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NASCAR: Richmond starting lineup – Kevin Harvick takes pole

By Asher Fair | Sep 8, 2020

For the third time in five usages of the NASCAR starting lineup formula, Kevin Harvick has taken the pole position, this time for the race at Richmond Raceway.