In what has been a career year in his third full-time season of racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Austin Cindric will start on the pole for the inaugural UNOH 188 at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course on Saturday, August 15.
The Daytona Road Course race marks the first race where the starting lineup was based on a new competition formula utilizing three statistical categories: the finishing results from the previous race (weighing at 50 percent), the order of owner points positioning (35 percent) and the fastest race lap from the previous race (15 percent).
Based upon the stats/measurements and averaging them, Cindric, the recent series winner at Road America and this year’s regular-season points leader, will lead the field to the start of the Daytona Road Course event. This will mark the first time where Cindric and his No. 22 Team Penske Ford Mustang will start on pole position for an upcoming Xfinity race this season.
Since May through last weekend at Road America, a random draw determined the starting lineup for an upcoming NASCAR race due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which eliminated practice and qualifying sessions throughout race weekend. When the 2020 Xfinity Playoffs commence in September at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the competitors in the Playoffs will occupy the top starting positions, according to how many remain throughout the Playoffs as four competitors will be eliminated after each round featuring three postseason races.
Chase Briscoe will start alongside Cindric followed by Noah Gragson, Ross Chastain and Justin Haley. Andy Lally, who tied his career-best result of fifth place last weekend at Road America, will start in sixth place followed by Michael Annett, Ryan Sieg, rookie Harrison Burton and A.J. Allmendinger. Brandon Jones and Brandon Brown will start 11th and 12th.
Starting in positions 13-25 are Josh Williams, rookie Riley Herbst, Preston Pardus, Alex Labbe, Justin Allgaier, Josh Bilicki, Jeremy Clements, Stephen Leicht, Mike Wallace, Tommy Joe Martins, Daniel Hemric, rookie Jesse Little and rookie Joe Graf Jr.
Starting in positions 26-38 are Kyle Weatherman, rookie Myatt Snider, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Scott Heckert, newcomer Earl Bamber, rookie Kody Vanderwal, Jade Buford, B.J. McLeod, Bayley Currey, Chad Finchum, Matt Mills, Brandon Gdovic and Harold Crooms.
The inaugural UNOH 188 at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course will occur on August 15 at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN.
