Unlike last season’s COVID-19 protocols eliminating practice and qualifying sessions, NASCAR has opted to include both in a handful of races on the 2021 schedule. Unfortunately for drivers and their fans who like to watch, this weekend’s race on Daytona International Speedway’s road course isn’t among them.
For the second race of the season — another weekend at Daytona after last Sunday’s Daytona 500 — there is no qualifying, despite the track still being fairly new to the schedule.
NASCAR had its first race on Daytona’s road course back in August, and the preseason Clash, an exhibition event, last week offered a few extra laps to those who competed in it. So Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 (3 p.m. ET, FOX) is only the second points race on the 14-turn, 3.61-mile course.
Without true qualifying, the starting lineup is calculated based on these factors:
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
And that means Chase Elliott — who won the August road course race and who we predicted will win several road course events this season — is starting on the pole. Here’s the starting lineup for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 253.
