Rain washed out all on-track action at Dover Motor Speedway on Saturday, preventing any drivers from turning practice or qualifying laps. It marks an unfortunate start to the track’s first July race weekend since its debut event back in 1969.
With qualifying cancelled, the starting grid for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race was determined using NASCAR’s performance-based metric.
That formula takes into account a combination of owner points, driver results from the previous race, and fastest lap times.
As a result, Chase Elliott was awarded the pole position. He will lead the field to green in the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
“Brand new tire or not, practice is always important,” said Kyle Larson, reflecting the drivers’ desire to get track time with the weekend’s new tire compound.
Lining up next to Elliott is Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe. Behind them will be Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, and William Byron, Elliott’s Hendrick teammate and current championship points leader.
Shane van Gisbergen, fresh off back-to-back road course wins in Chicago and Sonoma, will start sixth. Remarkably, SVG will make his first-ever lap in a Cup series car around the one-mile concrete oval in race conditions.
Rounding out the top 10 are Michael McDowell, Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs, and Kyle Busch. Busch, a three-time Dover winner, will roll off 10th, while defending race winner Denny Hamlin starts 13th.
Kyle Larson, who currently leads the playoff standings with three wins in 2025, finds himself starting 25th. The 2019 Dover winner has been looking to regain his early-season pace, with just one top-five (fifth at Michigan) and three top-10 finishes in the last eight races since his Kansas win in May.
“I’m hopeful,” Larson added, “my No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team can get back on track at the Monster Mile.”
Header Image: NASCAR
