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NASCAR starting lineup: Rain washes out qualifying, Christopher Bell gets pole at Pala Casino 400

We’ve got updates as qualifying settles the starting lineup for Sunday’s Pala Casino 400 at the Auto Club Speedway.

Cole Custer, driver of the #41 Production Alliance Group Ford, drives during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Wise Power 400 at Auto Club Speedway on February 26, 2022 in Fontana, California. Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images

UPDATE: Practice and qualifying for the Pala Casino 400 canceled due to rain. The Fontana race is still scheduled to run on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET. Christopher Bell was awarded pole position for the race and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. joins him on the front row. The starting lineup was set by performance metrics based on last week’s Daytona 500. The formula factored each driver’s fastest lap time position (15%), their final race position (25%), the owner’s final race position (25%), and the owner’s points position (35%).

The full starting lineup is listed below.


NASCAR qualifying returns on Saturday, February 25 in Fontana, California for the Pala Casino 400. The race runs at the Auto Club Speedway on Sunday, but the day before, qualifying is determining the starting lineup. The qualifying event starts at 2:50 p.m. ET on FS1 and will run approximately 90 minutes.

A week ago, NASCAR ran a multi-day qualifying process to set the lineup for the Daytona 500. This week, qualifying will wrap in 90 minutes with two rounds of single-car racing. The Pala Casino 400 features 36 drivers and they will be split into two groups for the first round of qualifying. Each driver races one lap around the track and the five fastest drivers in each of the two groups advance to a final round. Those ten drivers that advance then run another lap to determine pole position. The fastest starts first, the second fastest joins the fastest on the front row, the third and fourth fastest are on the second row, and so forth.

Kyle Larson is the race favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook ahead of qualifying. He is the defending champ in Fontana and has +650 odds to repeat. Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott follow at +800, and Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, and Christopher Bell are each +1000 to win.

Here is the full entry list for the Pala Casino 400 Cup Series race. We’ll update it with the full starting lineup as qualifying wraps.

Pala Casino 400 entry list

2023 Pala Casino 400 starting lineup

Pos Driver #
Pos Driver #
1 Christopher Bell 20
2 Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. 47
3 Joey Logano 22
4 Alex Bowman 48
5 Chris Buescher 17
6 A.J. Allmendinger 16
7 Daniel Suárez 99
8 Ross Chastain 1
9 Ryan Blaney 12
10 Kevin Harvick 4
11 Cody Ware 51
12 Corey LaJoie 7
13 Denny Hamlin 11
14 Martin Truex, Jr. 19
15 Kyle Larson 5
16 Brad Keselowski 6
17 Aric Almirola 10
18 Bubba Wallace 23
19 Austin Cindric 2
20 Noah Gragson 42
21 Kyle Busch 8
22 J.J. Yeley 15
23 Ty Gibbs 54
24 Harrison Burton 21
25 Todd Gilliland 38
26 Michael McDowell 34
27 Ryan Preece 41
28 Austin Dillon 3
29 Justin Haley 31
30 B.J. McLeod 78
31 Chase Briscoe 14
32 William Byron 24
33 Chase Elliott 9
34 Erik Jones 43
35 Tyler Reddick 45
36 Ty Dillon 77