NASCAR Daytona qualifying canceled due to lightning; Blaney to start from pole

Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman will lead the NASCAR Cup Series field to the green flag Saturday night at Daytona after qualifying was canceled due to weather.

Blaney and Bowman make up the front row via the performance metric, as outlined by the NASCAR Rule Book. The 40-car field was set by the metric for the regular-season finale. Blaney will seek his second win of the season at Daytona while Bowman, who is winless, is trying to secure his spot in the playoffs.

Blaney has one previous win at Daytona, which came in the summer of 2021. However, he has been involved in three crashes in the last four Daytona events.

Kyle Larson will start third and Joey Logano will start fourth. Austin Cindric starts fifth.

Denny Hamlin will start sixth, Austin Dillon seventh, and William Byron eighth. Byron, the Daytona 500 winner, is seeking a season sweep at Daytona. Chase Briscoe starts ninth, and Brad Keselowski completes the top 10.

Kyle Busch starts 14th and Christopher Bell starts 15th. Tyler Reddick, the other winless driver sitting above the cutline on the provisional payoff grid with Bowman, starts 27th.

Austin Dillon is in a third Richard Childress Racing car this weekend, the No. 33 Chevrolet. He starts 36th.

B.J. McLeod is back behind the wheel for his Live Fast Motorsports team. McLeod starts 38th.

The regular-season finale will lock in the 16-driver playoff field. Reddick and Bowman will make the field if there is no new winner. The only way for a driver to make the postseason, if they have not clinched a spot already, is to win Saturday night.

There is a full field of 40 teams entered at Daytona.

NEXT: Coke Zero 400 at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday.

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