Practice and Busch Light Pole Qualifying for Sunday‘s NASCAR Cup Series AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Dover Motor Speedway was canceled due to inclement weather Saturday afternoon.
Through a metric established by NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports‘ Chase Elliott was awarded pole position for Sunday‘s race. He‘ll start out front in the No. 9 Hendrick Chevrolet alongside Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Chase Briscoe in the No. 19 Toyota.
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NASCAR combines owners’ points, a driver‘s finishing position in the preceding race, and his fastest lap time in that race to rank the teams and establish a lineup when qualifying is not possible.
Championship points leader and Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron will start fifth Sunday, sharing the third row with Trackhouse Racing rookie Shane van Gisbergen. SVG has won the last two races (road-course events at Chicago and Sonoma), coming into the Dover 400-lapper.
The defending Dover winner, Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Denny Hamlin, will roll off 13th. A three-time Dover winner, Richard Childress Racing‘s Kyle Busch, will start 10th.
Hendrick Motorsports‘ Kyle Larson, a three-time race winner in 2025 who leads NASCAR‘s playoff standings, will start 25th. The 2019 Dover winner has only a single top-five (fifth place at Michigan) and three top-10s in the eight races since his last victory at Kansas in May.
With a new tire compound for cars this weekend, drivers were hoping for some laps on track. “Brand new tire or not, practice is always important,‘‘ Larson said, acknowledging he is hopeful his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team can return to early-season form this week at the famed “Monster Mile.”
“I wouldn‘t deny that we‘re in a slump, results kind of show that,‘‘ Larson said. “But I think some of it has been a little bit out of our control, and some of it is execution with a car that‘s been a little bit off on speed. But confidence in our 5 team is strong, and hopefully we can turn it around at Dover.”
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