Chase Elliott has won the Busch Pole Award for Sunday’s Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart (3:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Elliott, the series’ most recent winner last Sunday at Road America, will start his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet from the pole position at the 1.54-mile track in his home state of Georgia.
RELATED: Atlanta, Knoxville schedule | Cup Series standings
Cup Series regular Kyle Busch won the pole for Saturday’s Credit Karma Money 250 (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) in the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. The Camping World Truck Series is also in action this weekend, making its debut at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway. That event will use qualifying heats to determine the starting lineup for Friday’s Corn Belt 150 (9 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM).
As NASCAR adapted to COVID-19 protocols last season, practice and qualifying were eliminated at a majority of national-series events to limit at-track time, exposure and to cut race weekend costs. To determine starting lineups, competition officials used grouped draws, added inversions for weekend doubleheaders, and eventually adopted a performance-metrics formula. That metrics format remains in place this season, drawing on performance from both individual races and season-long results.
NASCAR’s metrics formula for 2021 weighs:

25 percent: Driver’s finishing position from the previous race
25 percent: Car owner’s finishing position from the previous race
35 percent: Team owner points ranking
15 percent: Fastest lap from the previous race

See the full lineup for Sunday’s Cup Series race below.

Start pos.

Driver
Car #
Team

1
Chase Elliott
9
Hendrick Motorsports

2
Kyle Busch
18
Joe Gibbs Racing

3
Denny Hamlin
11
Joe Gibbs Racing

4
Christopher Bell
20
Joe Gibbs Racing

5
Martin Truex Jr.
19
Joe Gibbs Racing

6
Kyle Larson
5
Hendrick Motorsports

7
Tyler Reddick
8
Richard Childress Racing

8
Kurt Busch
1
Chip Ganassi Racing

9
Ross Chastain
42
Chip Ganassi Racing

10
Joey Logano
22
Team Penske

11
Chase Briscoe
14
Stewart-Haas Racing

12
Matt DiBenedetto
21
Wood Brothers Racing

13
Austin Dillon
3
Richard Childress Racing

14
Brad Keselowski
2
Team Penske

15
Ryan Blaney
12
Team Penske

16
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
47
JTG Daugherty Racing

17
Alex Bowman
48
Hendrick Motorsports

18
Chris Buescher
17
Roush Fenway Racing

19
William Byron
24
Hendrick Motorsports

20
Aric Almirola
10
Stewart-Haas Racing

21
Kevin Harvick
4
Stewart-Haas Racing

22
Erik Jones
43
Richard Petty Motorsports

23
Cole Custer
41
Stewart-Haas Racing

24
Bubba Wallace
23
23XI Racing

25
Michael McDowell
34
Front Row Motorsports

26
Corey LaJoie
7
Spire Motorsports

27
Daniel Suarez
99
Trackhouse Racing Team

28
Justin Haley
77
Spire Motorsports

29
Ryan Newman
6
Roush Fenway Racing

30
Josh Bilicki
52
Rick Ware Racing

31
Cody Ware
51
Petty Ware Racing

32
Anthony Alfredo
38
Front Row Motorsports

33
Bayley Currey
15
Rick Ware Racing

34
Ryan Preece
37
JTG Daugherty Racing

35
Quin Houff
00
StarCom Racing

36
BJ McLeod
78
Live Fast Motorsports

37
Garrett Smithley
53
Rick Ware Racing

Practice and qualifying are tentatively scheduled for eight Cup Series races this year. Two races remain with Busch Pole Qualifying on the schedule — Aug. 15 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course and the season-ending championship race Nov. 7 at Phoenix Raceway.

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