NASCAR: Las Vegas starting lineup if qualifying is rained out

If qualifying gets rained out again, this is what the starting lineup for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will look like.

The NASCAR Cup Series did not see a qualifying session last weekend at Auto Club Speedway, as a bizarre day in Southern California featuring both rain and snow led to the cancellation of Saturday’s on-track activities.

The starting lineup for Sunday’s 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.0-mile (3.219-kilometer) Fontana oval was set by the qualifying formula, which was introduced back in 2020 when qualifying sessions weren’t taking place.

Upon the return of qualifying, this qualifying formula became the formula which determines the qualifying order.

The NASCAR qualifying formula takes into account the following four factors, and each factor is weighted as shown below.

• Driver’s finish in the most recent race (25%)
• Team owner’s (car number’s) finish in the most recent race (25%)
• Team owner’s (car number’s) rank in the owner standings (35%)
• Rank of driver’s fastest lap in the most recent race (15%)

For full-time drivers who compete behind the wheel of the same car each week, the first two categories are lumped together to form a single category, one which is weighted at 50%.

In the event that qualifying is canceled and thus a qualifying order isn’t needed, this formula is once again used to set the starting lineup, as we saw last week at Auto Club Speedway.

If it happens to be canceled again this week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, here’s what the starting lineup for the Pennzoil 400 will look like.

1st – Ross Chastain
2nd – Kyle Busch
3rd – Kevin Harvick
4th – Daniel Suarez
5th – Alex Bowman
6th – Joey Logano
7th – Denny Hamlin
8th – Chase Elliott
9th – Brad Keselowski
10th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
11th – Martin Truex Jr.
12th – Chris Buescher
13th – Corey LaJoie
14th – Austin Dillon
15th – Ty Gibbs
16th – Ryan Blaney
17th – Harrison Burton
18th – Michael McDowell
19th – Todd Gilliland
20th – J.J. Yeley
21st – Christopher Bell
22nd – Noah Gragson
23rd – Erik Jones
24th – William Byron
25th – Austin Cindric
26th – Kyle Larson
27th – Chase Briscoe
28th – Justin Haley
29th – Bubba Wallace
30th – A.J. Allmendinger
31st – Cody Ware
32nd – B.J. McLeod
33rd – Aric Almirola
34th – Ryan Preece
35th – Ty Dillon
36th – Tyler Reddick

Of course, unlike last week, the forecast is actually promising in terms of getting the qualifying session in, so it is highly unlikely that this will end up being what the lineup looks like. According to The Weather Channel, there is just a 2% chance of rain on Saturday.

If you take the drivers listed with even positions above and reverse the order, you get the qualifying order for the first group of Saturday’s qualifying session, and if you take the drivers listed with odd positions above and reverse the order, you get the qualifying order for the second group of the first round of Saturday’s qualifying session.

23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick is set to lead off the first group, and Spire Motorsports’ Ty Dillon is set to lead off the second. Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch is set to wrap up the first group, and Trackhouse Racing Team’s Ross Chastain is set to wrap up the second group.

The single-car, single-lap, two-round qualifying session is scheduled to get underway at 2:20 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon. The Pennzoil, which is set to be a 267-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Las Vegas, Nevada oval, is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday afternoon, and it is set to be broadcast live on Fox. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don’t miss it!