As the Indianapolis road course is a new circuit for the Cup Series, it is one event in 2021 where qualifying has been run. But who will start the first-ever race on the road course from pole position?
Byron eclipses team-mates
Hendrick Motorsports continued its strong form on road courses, as William Byron secured pole in the #24.
He was the only driver to break the 100mph barrier in the pole shootout, lapping the 14 turn circuit in 1m:27.765s.
Byron will be joined on the front-row for the rolling start at Indy by Chase Briscoe in the #14 Stewart Haas Racing machine.
It is the seventh pole position of Byron’s Cup career.
Series road course specialist Chase Elliott will take off in third place, ahead of team-mate Kyle Larson.
Joint series points leader Kyle Larson, who won the Knoxville Nationals overnight will start in fourth.
Big names fail to advance
Qualifying was split into two segments, with the fastest 12 from the first session advancing through.
The likes of Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski all failed to advance through to the second segment.
Hamlin will roll off in 14th as the second best Toyota – behind team-mate Truex in fourth.
Kurt Busch qualified 0.006s faster than brother Kyle for 20th and 21st, respectively.
Both Harvick (SHR) and Keselowski (Penske) struggled and qualified well down the order.
Harvick could manage 25th fastest, and Keselowski feared even worse with P31, 1.6s behind Larson, who was quickest in Q1.
When is the NASCAR race?
The race, the third to last in the regular season before the playoffs begin is scheduled for a 1:13pm ET green flag.
It will a 82-lap affair, split into 15-20-47 lap stages.
40 cars are due to take the green flag.
Grid for the race
- William Byron
- Chase Briscoe
- Chase Elliott
- Kyle Larson
- Daniel Suarez
- Martin Truex Jr
- Joey Logano
- AJ Allmendinger
- Ross Chastain
- Cole Custer
- Tyler Reddick
- Michael McDowell
- Austin Cindric
- Denny Hamlin
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Ryan Blaney
- Christopher Bell
- Aric Almirola
- Chris Buescher
- Kurt Busch
- Kyle Busch
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr
- Austin Dillon
- Alex Bowman
- Kevin Harvick
- Corey LaJoie
- Bubba Wallace
- Erik Jones
- Justin Haley
- Ryan Preece
- Brad Keselowski
- Ryan Newman
- Anthony Alfredo
- James Davison
- Andy Lally
- Josh Bilicki
- Cody Ware
- Quin Houff
- Garrett Smithley
- Timmy Hill
