By virtue of a draw among the top-12 teams in NASCAR Cup Series owner points, Aric Almirola will start on the pole for the Pocono Organics 325 on Saturday at Pocono Raceway. It’s Almirola’s fourth front-row start in the last six Cup Series races but his first pole start.
The Pocono weekend will be a history-making weekend for the Cup Series, as it’ll be the first time since 1971 that the series has contested points-paying races on consecutive days but the first time, ever, the series has done so at a single track.
“From the driver’s side, I know mentally and physically it’s going to be a lot,” Almirola said of running two Cup Series races in two days.
The Cup Series’ most recent winner at Talladega Superspeedway on Monday, Ryan Blaney, will start second in Saturday’s Pocono race to give Ford both starting spots on the front row.
Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch drew second-row starting positions for Toyota, with Hamlin in the third position and Busch in the fourth spot.
“Overall, I like our chances going there and turning around to put another setup in,” Hamlin said. “If the first one doesn’t work, we’ll bounce back from a bad day, if we were to have one. I think we’re going to be pretty solid both days.”
Chevrolet driver Chase Elliott drew the fifth starting position, and Blaney’s Team Penske teammate, Joey Logano, drew the sixth starting position to share row three of the grid with Elliott.
“So far, our prep hasn’t been any different for this weekend’s doubleheader,” Elliott said. “We, ultimately, want to run one car the whole weekend. I think keeping that in mind during the race on Saturday, but at the same time, I don’t know that you are really going to approach it much different. You always want to try and finish and finish toward the front, so I don’t think that is going to change. I do think track position is going to be really important with the shorter races, though, especially lining yourself up for the last stage in each event, because it is going to be so short. It’s going to be hard to make up a lot of ground in a hurry.”
Other drawings determined starting positions 13th through 24th and 25th through 36th on the starting grid. The final four spots on the 40-car grid were determined by owner points among four open, or non-chartered, teams.
Results from Saturday’s race will determine the starting grid for Sunday’s Pocono finale. The finishing positions of the top-20 drivers in Saturday’s race will be inverted for the start of Sunday’s race, putting the 20th-place finisher from Saturday and the pole for Sunday. The 21st through 40th-place finishers in Saturday’s race will start in the same positions for Sunday’s race.
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