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

Tom Gatto

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

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

Drivers' starting positions for the GEICO 500 (2 p.m. ET; Fox, TSN, 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)

NASCAR is conducting qualifying and practice for just eight Cup Series races in the 2021 season. Six races in that group remain, starting with the May 23 event at Circuit of the Americas, a road course outside Austin, Texas.

Below is the starting lineup, which was set without qualifying, for Sunday's NASCAR race on the 2.66-mile track at Talladega Superspeedway.

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

Who won the pole for the NASCAR race at Talladega?

Denny Hamlin is the polesitter for Sunday's race based on NASCAR's mathematical formula. Hamlin leads the series point standings after nine races despite not having won a race. He leads all drivers with eight top-five finishes and five stage wins. Hamlin won the first two stages of last weekend's race at Richmond but was forced to settle for second after being passed by Alex Bowman on the final restart.

To Hamlin's outside will be Joey Logano, who finished third at Richmond and is third in the point standings. Logano has a race win (Bristol dirt), four top-fives and two stage wins this season. 

The rest of the top 10 for the race at Talladega: Martin Truex Jr., William Byron, Alex Bowman, Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski.

NASCAR starting lineup at Talladega

The starting lineup for Sunday's race at Talladega Superspeedway was determined through a mathematical formula NASCAR adopted late in the 2020 season. The formula produced this starting lineup for the GEICO 500 without qualifying:

Start pos. Driver Car No. Team
1 Denny Hamlin 11 Joe Gibbs Racing
2 Joey Logano 22 Team Penske
3 Martin Truex Jr. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing
4 William Byron 24 Hendrick Motorsports
5 Alex Bowman 48 Hendrick Motorsports
6 Christopher Bell 20 Joe Gibbs Racing
7 Ryan Blaney 12 Team Penske
8 Chase Elliott 9 Hendrick Motorsports
9 Kyle Busch 18 Joe Gibbs Racing
10 Brad Keselowski 2 Team Penske
11 Austin Dillon 3 Richard Childress Racing
12 Kyle Larson 5 Hendrick Motorsports
13 Matt DiBenedetto 21 Wood Brothers Racing
14 Aric Almirola 10 Stewart-Haas Racing
15 Kurt Busch 1 Chip Ganassi Racing
16 Kevin Harvick 4 Stewart-Haas Racing
17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing
18 Ross Chastain 42 Chip Ganassi Racing
19 Daniel Suarez 99 Trackhouse Racing Team
20 Tyler Reddick 8 Richard Childress Racing
21 Chris Buescher 17 Roush Fenway Racing
22 Erik Jones 43 Richard Petty Motorsports
23 Michael McDowell 34 Front Row Motorsports
24 Bubba Wallace 23 23XI Racing
25 Chase Briscoe 14 Stewart-Haas Racing
26 Corey LaJoie 7 Spire Motorsports
27 Cole Custer 41 Stewart-Haas Racing
28 Ryan Newman 6 Roush Fenway Racing
29 Ryan Preece 37 JTG Daugherty Racing
30 Anthony Alfredo 38 Front Row Motorsports
31 BJ McLeod 78 Live Fast Motorsports
32 Quin Houff 00 StarCom Racing
33 Cody Ware 51 Petty Ware Racing
34 Justin Haley 77 Spire Motorsports
35 Joey Gase 28 Rick Ware Racing
36 Josh Bilicki 52 Rick Ware Racing
37 JJ Yeley 15 Rick Ware Racing
38 Kaz Grala 16 Kaulig Racing
39 Harrison Burton 96 Gaunt Brothers Racing
40 Timmy Hill 66 MBM Motorsports

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.