NASCAR lineup at Las Vegas: Starting order, pole for Sunday's race without qualifying

Tom Gatto

NASCAR lineup at Las Vegas: Starting order, pole for Sunday's race without qualifying image

The starting lineup for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was set by applying the statistical formula NASCAR is using for the majority of its 2021 races.

Drivers' starting positions for the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube (3:30 p.m. ET; Fox, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) were based on four factors:

  • Driver's finishing position from the previous race (25 percent)
  • Car owner's finishing position from the previous race (25 percent)
  • Team owner points ranking (35 percent)
  • Fastest lap from the previous race (15 percent)

Below is the starting lineup for Sunday's NASCAR race on the 1.5-mile intermediate track at Las Vegas and how it was set without qualifying.

MORE: Watch Sunday's NASCAR race with fuboTV (7-day free trial)

Who won the pole for the NASCAR race at Las Vegas?

Kevin Harvick earned the pole position for Sunday's race based on the formula NASCAR uses for races without qualifying. The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford finished fifth in last weekend's race, the Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and is second in the Cup Series point standings after three races.

Joining him on the front row will be Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron, who drove off to victory at Homestead — his second career Cup Series win.

In fact, all four Hendrick Motorsports drivers have spots in Vegas starting lineup's top 10: Byron, Kyle Larson (third), Chase Elliott (eighth) and Alex Bowman (ninth). The other drivers who will line up in the top 10 on Sunday: Martin Truex Jr. (fourth), Michael McDowell (fifth), Denny Hamlin (sixth), Kurt Busch (seventh) and Brad Keselowski (10th).

The next on-track qualifying session will be the heat races for the Bristol dirt race on March 28.

NASCAR starting lineup at Las Vegas

The starting lineup for Sunday's race at Las Vegas was determined through a mathematical formula NASCAR adopted late in the 2020 season. The same procedure for setting lineups without qualifying is being used for the majority of races in 2021.

The formula produced this starting lineup for Sunday's NASCAR race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube:

Driver Car No. Team
Kevin Harvick 4 Stewart-Haas Racing
William Byron 24 Hendrick Motorsports
Kyle Larson 5 Hendrick Motorsports
Martin Truex Jr. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing
Michael McDowell 34 Front Row Motorsports
Denny Hamlin 11 Joe Gibbs Racing
Kurt Busch 1 Chip Ganassi Racing
Chase Elliott 9 Hendrick Motorsports
Alex Bowan 48 Hendrick Motorsports
Brad Keselowski 2 Team Penske
Tyler Reddick 8 Richard Childress Racing
Austin Dillon 3 Richard Childress Racing
Ryan Newman 6 Roush Fenway Racing
Kyle Busch 18 Joe Gibbs Racing
Joey Logano 22 Team Penske
Christopher Bell 20 Joe Gibbs Racing
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing
Chris Buescher 17 Roush Fenway Racing
Ryan Preece 37 JTG Daugherty Racing
Cole Custer 41 Stewart-Haas Racing
Ross Chastain 42 Chip Ganassi Racing
Daniel Suarez 99 TrackHouse Racing
Bubba Wallace 23 23XI Racing
Chase Briscoe 14 Stewart-Haas Racing
Justin Haley 77 Spire Motorsports
Ryan Blaney 12 Team Penske
Anthony Alfredo 38 Front Row Motorsports
Aric Almirola 10 Stewart-Haas Racing
Erik Jones 43 Richard Petty Motorsports
Matt DiBenedetto 21 Wood Brothers Racing
Garrett Smithley 53 Rick Ware Racing
Cody Ware 51 Petty Ware Racing
Corey LaJoie 7 Spire Motorsports
BJ McLeod 78 Live Fast Motorsports
Josh Bilicki 52 Rick Ware Racing
Quin Houff 00 StarCom Racing
Joey Gase 15 Rick Ware Racing
Timmy Hill 66 Motorsports Business Management

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.