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NASCAR Cup Series qualifying was canceled due to rain.
The NASCAR Cup Series was scheduled for single-car qualifying on Saturday afternoon for the Bank of America 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. However, Mother Nature had other ideas for the 39-car field as qualifying was canceled due to rain on Saturday morning.
Qualifying was moved up from its original start time of 2:05 p.m. ET to 12:05 p.m. ET due to the threat of inclement weather. However, the two-hour change would not be enough to get past the rain and both qualifying and practice were canceled.
Because of the cancellation, the starting lineup of Sunday’s Bank of America 400 was set based on the metric. That means championship leader Kyle Larson will lead the field to the green flag for Sunday’s race.
Larson, who carries a 40-point lead into the sixth race of the Chase, has been lights out through the first five races of the postseason. The driver of the No. 5 has finished no worse than fifth and has posted two wins.
Chase drivers take up the top nine positions for Sunday’s race (Larson, Chase Briscoe, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric, William Byron, Joey Logano, Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott).
Shane van Gisbergen rolls off 10th as the highest-starting non-Chase driver.
Carson Hocevar (11th), Denny Hamlin (12th), Chris Buescher (13th), Daniel Suarez (15th) and Christopher Bell (17th) are five Chase drivers who find themselves starting outside the top 10 but within 11th-20th.
Suarez is the defending Charlotte oval Cup Series winner after winning the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 last May.
Full NASCAR Cup Series Lineup For Bank of America 400
Kyle Larson (Chase)
Chase Briscoe (Chase)
Tyler Reddick (Chase)
Ryan Blaney (Chase)
Austin Cindric (Chase)
William Byron (Chase)
Joey Logano (Chase)
Bubba Wallace (Chase)
Chase Elliott (Chase)
Shane van Gisbergen
Carson Hocevar (Chase)
Denny Hamlin (Chase)
Chris Buescher (Chase)
Ty Gibbs (Chase)
Daniel Suarez (Chase)
Alex Bowman
Christopher Bell (Chase)
AJ Allmendinger
Michael McDowell
Austin Dillon
Riley Herbst
Brad Keselowski
Noah Gragson
Ryan Preece (Chase)
Erik Jones
Austin Hill
Josh Berry
Ross Chastain
John Hunter Nemechek
Cole Custer
Todd Gilliland
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Ty Dillon
Zane Smith
Cody Ware
Connor Zilisch
Corey Heim
Gray Gaulding
BJ McLeod
John Breeden John Breeden is a NASCAR contributor at Heavy Sports. He has five years of sports journalism experience. He graduated from James Madison University in May of 2022 with a degree in media arts and design. John is also a sports reporter for the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Previously, John was a sports writer for JMU’s The Breeze and a NASCAR content writer for Sportskeeda. More about John Breeden