NASCAR’s Atlanta Friday practices, qualifying rained out

Mother Nature is back to spoil everyone’s fun. On the same day the FIA World Endurance Championship‘s 1000 Miles of Sebring in the neighbouring state of Florida was shortened for weather, NASCAR‘s Friday on-track activities at Atlanta Motor Speedway were cancelled due to rain. All three national series—Cup, Xfinity, Camping World Truck Series—consequently lost practice and qualifying sessions for the day, meaning the starting lineups were instead set using the qualifying formula devised for non-qualifying races during the COVID-19 pandemic seasons in 2020 and 2021.

Pending weather, all three series still intend to practice on Saturday. Such sessions will be important as NASCAR’s first excursions on a reconfigured Atlanta.

With no qualifying, Chase Briscoe will start Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 on the pole ahead of Team Penske‘s Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano for a Ford sweep of the top three positions. Briscoe is coming off his first career Cup victory at Phoenix.

“Car drove absolutely PERFECT in qualifying, proud of my guys,” joked Briscoe.

With only thirty-seven cars entered, everyone makes the race. Including the chartered cars, Greg Biffle and NY Racing Team will make their third start of 2022 after skipping Phoenix. Driver changes from Phoenix come in Spire Motorsports‘ #77 and Rick Ware Racing‘s multi-man #15, which respectively go from the hands of Landon Cassill to Josh Bilicki and Garrett Smithley to Georgia native David Ragan.

The Xfinity and Truck Series will race on Saturday with the Nalley Cars 250 and Fr8 208, respectively. Noah Gragson, also a winner at Phoenix, starts on the pole for the Xfinity event alongside JR Motorsports team-mate Josh Berry. Smith also won his series’ most recent event at Las Vegas two weeks ago.

Although races without qualifying have expanded grids to thirty-eight from the usual thirty-six, there are no DNQs in the Trucks as thirty-six drivers are entered. Starting last will be Cup driver Ross Chastain in a fifth entry for Niece Motorsports.

Conversely, five entries will not run the Xfinity race: David Starr, Brennan Poole, Chad Finchum, Dillon Bassett, and Harrison Rhodes. Bassett and his family-owned Bassett Racing have been snakebit since launching its Xfinity programme in 2021, with all but one race entered having ended with a DNQ due to rain-outs and non-qualifying events.

Cup starting lineup

Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford
2	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford
3	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford
4	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
5	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
6	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
7	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet
8	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford
9	45	Kurt Busch	23XI Racing	Toyota
10	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford
11	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
12	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
13	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet
14	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford
15	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
16	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford
17	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
18	42	Ty Dillon	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet
19	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota
20	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford
21	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
22	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet
23	43	Erik Jones	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet
24	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford
25	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford
26	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
27	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
28	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet
29	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford
30	16	Noah Gragson*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet
31	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford
32	51	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing	Ford
33	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet
34	78	B.J. McLeod	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford
35	15	David Ragan	Rick Ware Racing	Ford
36	77	Josh Bilicki*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet
37	44	Greg Biffle	NY Racing Team	Chevrolet

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for series points

Xfinity starting lineup

Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet
2	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet
3	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
4	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
5	18	Trevor Bayne	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
6	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet
7	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet
8	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet
9	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford
10	10	Landon Cassill	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet
11	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet
12	27	Jeb Burton	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet
13	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
14	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
15	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet
16	02	Brett Moffitt	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet
17	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet
18	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet
19	26	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota
20	4	Bayley Currey	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet
21	66	J.J. Yeley	MBM Motorsports	Ford
22	31	Myatt Snider	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet
23	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford
24	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford
25	99	Stefan Parsons	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet
26	91	Mason Massey	DGM Racing	Chevrolet
27	23	Anthony Alfredo	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet
28	92	Kyle Weatherman	DGM Racing	Chevrolet
29	44	Sage Karam	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet
30	48	Jade Buford	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet
31	28	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford
32	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet
33	5	Matt Mills	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Ford
34	38	Loris Hezemans*	RSS Racing	Toyota
35	35	Shane Lee	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Chevrolet
36	78	Josh Williams	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet
37	45	Tommy Joe Martins	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet
38	34	Jesse Iwuji	Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	Chevrolet
DNQ	08	David Starr	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford
DNQ	47	Brennan Poole	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ	13	Chad Finchum	MBM Motorsports	Toyota
DNQ	77	Dillon Bassett	Bassett Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ	52	Harrison Rhodes	Jimmy Means Racing	Chevrolet

Truck starting lineup

Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	18	Chandler Smith	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota
2	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota
3	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Toyota
4	66	Ty Majeski	ThorSport Racing	Toyota
5	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet
6	25	Matt DiBenedetto	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet
7	22	Austin Wayne Self	AM Racing	Chevrolet
8	23	Grant Enfinger	GMS Racing	Chevrolet
9	15	Tanner Gray	David Gilliland Racing	Ford
10	16	Tyler Ankrum	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota
11	17	Ryan Preece	David Gilliland Racing	Ford
12	4	John Hunter Nemechek	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota
13	40	Dean Thompson	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet
14	20	Matt Mills*	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet
15	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota
16	98	Christian Eckes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota
17	30	Tate Fogleman	On Point Motorsports	Toyota
18	19	Derek Kraus	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet
19	51	Corey Heim	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota
20	61	Chase Purdy	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota
21	44	Kris Wright	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet
22	24	Jack Wood	GMS Racing	Chevrolet
23	56	Timmy Hill	Hill Motorsports	Toyota
24	45	Lawless Alan	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet
25	38	Zane Smith	Front Row Motorsports	Ford
26	91	Colby Howard	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet
27	1	Hailie Deegan	David Gilliland Racing	Ford
28	43	Thad Moffitt	GMS Racing with Reaume Brothers Racing	Chevrolet
29	33	Chris Hacker	Reaume Brothers Racing	Toyota
30	12	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet
31	46	Matt Jaskol	G2G Racing	Toyota
32	9	Blaine Perkins	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet
33	3	Jordan Anderson	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet
34	02	Jesse Little	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet
35	47	Brennan Poole*	G2G Racing	Toyota
36	41	Ross Chastain*	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet