A persistent rain forced NASCAR to cancel qualifying for the Sprint Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway on Friday. As per the NASCAR rulebook, the field will line up based on points with points leader Brad Keselowski leading the field to the green flag on Sunday.
Dover has been one of the better tracks for Keselowski on the Sprint Cup circuit, with an average finish of 12.8 and a win in his 2012 championship winning season. Keselowski enters Sunday with a 35 point cushion on making the next Chase round.
“It’s great… because we obviously have been having a great season, maybe not with what we had done on track today, but with what we had done throughout the course of the year and scoring a lot of points and winning races,” Keselowski said. “So it’s certainly still something to be very proud of, to be this far into the season and being [in] the points lead, so these are the perks you get when you’re in that position. We’ll take it.”
Starting next to Keselowski will be Martin Truex Jr. Truex has long considered Dover, the site of his very first Sprint Cup win, a home race. The New Jersey driver has nothing to lose on Sunday, thanks to his win at Chicago a couple of weeks ago guaranteeing him advancement to the second Chase round. Kevin Harvick, who starts seventh, is the only other Chaser who is locked in.
Kyle Busch starts third and Matt Kenseth starts fourth. Joey Logano rounds out the top five starters.
The drivers on the Chase bubble will all start right next to each other, with Kyle Larson (+5) in 12th, Jamie McMurray (-5) in 13th, Austin Dillon (-5) in 14th, Tony Stewart (-11) in 15th, and Chris Buescher (-30) in 16th. Keselowski seemed to be happy about not having to start in the middle of that; “That should be compelling to watch. I won’t get to see it, but you will”.
It’s the third straight Sprint Cup race at Dover where qualifying has been rained out; the last time qualifying was completed at Dover was in the spring 2015 race.
