Rain Washes Out Charlotte Qualifying; Larson Takes Pole for Bank of America 400

Persistent rain washed out all on-track activity at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday, forcing NASCAR to cancel Cup Series qualifying and award pole for Sunday's Bank of America 400 to points leader Kyle Larson via the series' metric formula.

The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet will lead the field to green for Sunday's 267-lap sixth race of the Chase at 3 p.m. ET, with Las Vegas winner Chase Briscoe alongside on the front row. Tyler Reddick starts third, followed by Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric, William Byron, Joey Logano, Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott, and Shane van Gisbergen. Christopher Bell, third in points, starts 17th after a power-steering failure at Las Vegas, while Denny Hamlin — 40 points behind Larson — lines up 12th.

Saturday's O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race, the Blue Cross NC 300, was also postponed and will now run Sunday night at 8 p.m. ET after the Cup race. Larson cautioned that maintaining a lead at Charlotte is harder than at Kansas because "the grip in the surface is a lot less," a warning he may get to demonstrate firsthand from the front of the pack.