By Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service
CONCORD, N.C.—Persistent rain forced cancelation or postponement of all NASCAR on-track activity on Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The cancelation of qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series race puts Kyle Larson on the pole for Sunday’s Bank of America 400, the sixth race in the Chase presented by Mobil 1 (3 p.m. ET on USA, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
In addition, the Blue Cross NC 300 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race, scheduled for Saturday afternoon, has been postponed until 8 p.m. ET on Sunday night, following the Bank of America 400. The Blue Cross NC 300 will be broadcast on CW, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
With the starting order set by a metric formula that combines the results of the previous race with owner points position, Larson, the Chase leader by 40 points over second-place Denny Hamlin, will start beside Chase Briscoe, last Sunday’s winner at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
However, the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet doesn’t feel the top starting spot will give him as big an advantage as starting on the front row for the third Chase race at Kansas Speedway, where he started second and took control of the race.
“I actually think (Charlotte) is a harder track to maintain a lead, because the grip in the surface is a lot less,” Larson said. “At Kansas, you can maintain the lead pretty easily for three quarters of the run, and then they start coming at you.
“From the (Coca-Cola) 600 (at Charlotte in May), I got out to a lead a couple of different times. I guess cars were just faster and passed me with no problem … But, yeah, if our car is good, we’re going to try our best to get the lead and maintain it.”
Christopher Bell, third in the standings and 55 points behind Larson, starts 17th after suffering a power steering failure at Las Vegas. Fourth-place Joey Logano, 71 points back, is seventh on the grid beside fellow Chase driver Bubba Wallace.
Hamlin will take the green flag from the 12th position.
Saturday’s qualifying for the O’Reilly Series race also was canceled, leaving Chase driver Carson Kvapil on the pole with Las Vegas winner Corey Day beside him. Defending series champion Jesse Love starts third beside rookie Brent Crews.
Series leader Sheldon Creed is eighth on the grid.
