Last week's winner Chase Briscoe will start on the front row for Sunday’s NASCAR Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 after the qualifying session was canceled due to inclement weather. The starting grid was decided by the Performance Metric formula and the practice session was rescheduled for Saturday in place of qualifying.
The Stewart Haas Racing team driver is in a good position to win considering his pole as he approaches Sunday’s race. That’s right, he didn’t earn the pole, but rather, he landed on it automatically without running a single lap. Because of this, the driver of #14 had a quite sarcastic reaction. On Twitter, his team shared a post about his pole position to which Briscoe replied:
“Car drove absolutely PERFECT in qualifying, proud of my guys.”
Steve Luvender, @NASCAR.com field filler & GIF maker, reacted to this tweet which read:
“Not a single car ran a faster lap than the No. 14. really quite impressive”
In reply, Briscoe joked, saying:
“Never thought my first pole would come from 30,000 feet.”
Meanwhile, 2021 Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 winner Ryan Blaney will join Briscoe on the front row for Sunday’s race. The second row of the NASCAR Cup Series race starting line-up has Joey Logano and Kyle Busch. The third-row features Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliot. The fourth row has Ross Chastain and Kevin Harvick while Kyle Larson is placed in the 11th row.
How does NASCAR determine the starting line-up using the Performance Metrics formula?
The starting line-up result for Atlanta Motor Speedway is set using a formula based on Performance Metrics Qualifying. The formula consists of four categories: owner points position, owner final race position, and the finish and fastest lap from the most recent race.
The formula based on the previous race consists of 15% of a fastest lap time position, 25% of the driver’s final race finish position, 25% of the owner’s final race position and 35% of the owner points position. The highest to score on these metrics takes the pole position.