Over the month of June, the NASCAR Cup Series has been making a cross-country trek from Sonoma Raceway on the west coast towards Pocono Raceway all the way in the northeast. At every stop on this trip, nobody has been able to slow down or even so much as remain in the same zip code as Kyle Larson -- a problem for the rest of the field which continues heading into the Cup Series' annual visit to the Pocono mountains.
On Wednesday, NASCAR released the starting lineup for Saturday's Pocono Organics CBD 325, the first of two races in a unique doubleheader weekend. Larson has been awarded the pole based on NASCAR's qualifying metric, which tabulates the starting lineup based on finishing position and fastest lap from last week in Nashville, as well as points position.
While the qualifying metric has been used to set the lineup for the first race of the doubleheader, the starting lineup for Sunday's race will be based on the finishing order of Saturday's race. Instead of using time trial qualifying or the qualifying metric, the starting lineup for Sunday will be an invert of the Top 20 finishers from Saturday's race, with positions 21-38 starting in the order in which they finished.
Here is the complete starting lineup for the Pocono Organics CBD 325:
- #5 - Kyle Larson - HendrickCars.com Chevrolet
- #24 - William Byron - Axalta Color of the Year Chevrolet
- #4 - Kevin Harvick - Ford
- #22 - Joey Logano - Shell Pennzoil Ford
- #18 - Kyle Busch - M&M's Mini's Toyota
- #42 - Ross Chastain - McDonald's Chevrolet
- #47 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr. - Scott Brand Chevrolet
- #1 - Kurt Busch - Monster Energy Chevrolet
- #20 - Christopher Bell - Rheem Toyota
- #11 - Denny Hamlin - FedEx Ground Toyota
- #10 - Aric Almirola - Smithfield Ford
- #3 - Austin Dillon - Chevrolet
- #48 - Alex Bowman - Ally Chevrolet
- #99 - Daniel Suarez - CommScope Chevrolet
- #19 - Martin Truex Jr. - STANLEY Toyota
- #8 - Tyler Reddick - Chevrolet
- #34 - Michael McDowell - ARRMA Ford
- #2 - Brad Keselowski - Detroit Engines Ford
- #6 - Ryan Newman - Wyndham Rewards Ford
- #23 - Bubba Wallace - Root Insurance Toyota
- #21 - Matt DiBenedetto - Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford
- #43 - Erik Jones - Medallion Bank Chevrolet
- #7 - Corey LaJoie - Nations Guard Chevrolet
- #38 - Anthony Alfredo # - Death Wish Coffee Ford
- #17 - Chris Buescher - Acronis Ford
- #41 - Cole Custer - HaasTooling.com Ford
- #12 - Ryan Blaney - Menards/Richmond Ford
- #14 - Chase Briscoe # - HighPoint.com/Webex by Cisco Ford
- #9 - Chase Elliott - NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet
- #53 - Garrett Smithley - Chevrolet
- #37 - Ryan Preece - Thomas'/Kroger Chevrolet
- #78 - B.J. McLeod - Ford
- #52 - Josh Bilicki - Ford
- #77 - Justin Haley - Diamond Creek Water Chevrolet
- #51 - Cody Ware - Nurtec ODT Chevrolet
- #15 - James Davison - Chevrolet
- #00 - Quin Houff - Mane 'n Tail/Spirit Unlimited Chevrolet
- #66 - Timmy Hill - M&M Mechanical LLC Toyota