DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott will start on the front row for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway.
Qualifying was canceled due to inclement weather and as a result, the lineup was set by the rulebook. The Daytona race marks the 26th and final event of the Cup Series regular season.
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Alex Bowman will line up 10th, while William Byron will start 17th for the 160-lap, 400-mile race at the “World Center of Racing.”
Larson is the most recent winner in the Cup Series with a victory at Watkins Glen International on Sunday. He is looking to wrap up second place in the regular season standings and the 10 playoff points that came with that. The driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 currently holds a nine-point advantage on Ryan Blaney for the spot.
"We are second in the regular season points right now and I think there are maybe four of us that are really close to finishing second," Larson said during a pre-race availability at Daytona. "Because of that, I feel like we need to go after stage points to do our part to finish second. Our plan is to race the whole time and just stay up front and get some points."
Elliott comes into this weekend fresh off securing the regular season championship and its reward of 15 playoff points. The driver of the No. 9 A SHOC Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 has four straight top-10 finishes at the 2.5-mile venue, with two runner-up finishes in that stretch. The 26-year-old Dawsonville, Georgia, native’s four wins on the season are the best mark in the series.
Bowman has three top-10 finishes at Daytona and those have all come in the summertime event. His will start in the top 10 for the ninth time in the past 10 races at the speedway. This weekend marks the first of the final 11 races of Greg Ives’ career atop the pit box as the No. 48 crew chief announced on Friday morning that he is stepping away from crew chief duties at the end of the 2022 season.
Byron has a Daytona win on his resume as he won this event in the summer of 2020 for his first Cup Series win. The driver of the No. 24 Axalta/Service King Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 has two wins on the season and is looking to build on his 13 playoff points with the postseason right around the corner. The 24-year-old is the lone driver in the current Hendrick Motorsports to win at this facility in a points-paying event.
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Hendrick Motorsports is tied for the most wins at Daytona with 15 - eight in the DAYTONA 500 and seven in the 400-mile summer race. Those 15 wins have come with seven different drivers - which is also tied for the most drivers on one team to win at the Florida venue. Jeff Gordon’s six wins top the board, followed by Jimmie Johnson with three victories and Dale Earnhardt Jr. at two triumphs. Byron, Geoff Bodine, Tim Richmond and Darrell Waltrip each have one win.
Tune in as the regular season concludes at Daytona with Sunday's race at 10 a.m. ET on CNBC, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90). The race was initially schedule for Saturday night but rain postponed the event.