Race Weekend Central

Martin Truex Jr. Rolls Off From Cup Pole at Bristol

It’s the final race in the Round of 16 of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs and Martin Truex Jr. will lead the field to green at Bristol Motor Speedway Saturday (Sept. 18).

Truex claimed the pole position for the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race after winning at Richmond Raceway last week.

Darlington Raceway victor Denny Hamlin will start alongside his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate on the front row. Team Penske’s Joey Logano will begin the race from third, while Hendrick Motorsports cohorts Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson round out the top five.

Christopher Bell starts sixth and Ryan Blaney is seventh. Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski complete the top-10 starters.

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The remaining playoff drivers take up the 11th-16th positions: Alex Bowman, Aric Almirola, Tyler Reddick, William Byron, Kurt Busch and Michael McDowell.

All 38 drivers entered made the race this weekend. As for setting the lineup, it was formula-based, a metric that considered both driver and team performance. Owner points ranking (weighted 35%), driver’s and car owner’s finishing position (25% each) and fastest lap from the previous race (15%) were added together in this formula. The lowest score started on the pole, then second place, etc. with all NASCAR playoff drivers automatically placed in the top 16 spots.

Cup Starting Lineup for Bristol

The Bass Pro Shops Night Race will air Sept. 18 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.

About the author

Joy joined Frontstretch in 2019 as a NASCAR DraftKings writer, expanding to news and iRacing coverage in 2020. She's currently an assistant editor and involved with photos, social media and news editing. A California native, Joy was raised as a motorsports fan and started watching NASCAR extensively in 2001. She earned her B.A. degree in Liberal Studies at California State University Bakersfield in 2010.

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