Coca-Cola 600 Qualifying Wiped Out Due to Weather, Reddick On Pole

CONCORD, N.C. -- In what has been an emotional week, the NASCAR community would love to see some cars hit the track to take their minds off the sadness. However, Mother Nature continues to have other plans. On Saturday afternoon, inclement weather forced the cancellation of qualifying for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

As a result, the starting lineup was set by the NASCAR Rule Book, which means they'll lineup based on the performance metric values earned in the last NASCAR Cup Series points-paying race at Watkins Glen International.

With a metric score of 3.800, Tyler Reddick, the series point leader who drives for 23XI Racing a team owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, will lead the field to the green flag in Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 -- the longest race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule.

Reddick, who became the first driver to ever win the opening three races of a NASCAR Cup Series season and went on to win five of the first nine races, is seeking his sixth win of the season on Sunday.

Reddick, who took the win in the first NASCAR crown jewel event of the season, the season-opening Daytona 500, will look to add his first win in the Coca-Cola 600.

Ty Gibbs, the driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota who took his first career win earlier this year at Bristol Motor Speedway, will start alongside on the front row.

Shane van Gisbergen, Michael McDowell, and Chase Briscoe will round out the top-five starters in the field for Sunday's 600-mile crown jewel event at the 1.5-mile speedway in Concord, NC.

Richard Childress Racing, which suffered an unfathomable tragedy when Kyle Busch, the driver of the team's No. 8 Chevrolet, died on Thursday at the age of 41, will have two solid starting spots for its cars this weekend as they race in Busch's honor.

Austin Dillon will start ninth in the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, while Austin Hill will start 13th in the renumbered No. 33 Chevrolet. RCR opted to suspend use of Busch's No. 8 on its car ahead of this weekend's race.

In a respectful gesture, NASCAR allowed the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing team to unload its car of the hauler before anyone else on Saturday morning. As the entire NASCAR Cup Series garage stood in silence to honor the memory of Busch and to support the RCR team, the No. 33 car was lowered from its team hauler, and pushed toward the inspection bay.

Then, Austin Dillon's No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet was unloaded, and pushed to inspection. After that, the rest of the garage area went to work, and began unloading their cars. It was an emotional morning in the NASCAR Cup Series garage.

Katherine Legge, who is looking to become the first female competitor, and first non-American driver to ever complete the Indianapolis 500/Coca-Cola 600 double on Sunday, is slated to start from the 37th position in the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet.

While inclement weather has already wiped out practice and qualifying for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series events this weekend, NASCAR is hopeful to get the track dry in time to complete an abbreviated practice session for the Coca-Cola 600.

Track drying equipment has been on track trying to prepare the racing surface for some time.

Coca-Cola 600 Starting Lineup

1. 45-Tyler Reddick
2. 54-Ty Gibbs
3. 97-Shane van Gisbergen
4. 71-Michael McDowell
5. 19-Chase Briscoe
6. 12-Ryan Blaney
7. 17-Chris Buescher
8. 2-Austin Cindric
9. 3-Austin Dillon
10. 16-AJ Allmendinger
11. 11-Denny Hamlin
12. 60-Ryan Preece
13. 33-Austin Hill (i)
14. 7-Daniel Suarez
15. 42-John Hunter Nemchek
16. 9-Chase Elliott
17. 20-Christopher Bell
18. 5-Kyle Larson
19. 38-Zane Smith
20. 34-Todd Gilliland
21. 43-Erik Jones
22. 41-Cole Custer
23. 77-Carson Hocevar
24. 23-Bubba Wallace
25. 88-Connor Zilisch #
26. 6-Brad Keselowski
27. 1-Ross Chastain
28. 4-Noah Gragson
29. 48-Alex Bowman
30. 35-Riley Herbst
31. 24-William Byron
32. 47-Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
33. 22-Joey Logano
34. 21-Josh Berry
35. 10-Ty Dillon
36. 66-Timmy Hill (i)
37. 78-Katherine Legge
38. 51-Cody Ware
39. 67-Corey Heim (i)

# Rookie of the year contender
(i) Driver ineligible to score series points

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