Kyle Larson on pole for Sonoma, Austin Cindric for Mid-Ohio

Although they are at different tracks, the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series are going road racing once again at circuits they have not visited in over a year. Kyle Larson will lead the Cup Series to green in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, while Austin Cindric will do so for Saturday’s B&L Transport 170 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

After two weeks with qualifying, NASCAR resumes its formula-based starting lineup methodology. Both Sonoma and Mid-Ohio did not host NASCAR in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cup: Larson gets fourth straight Sonoma pole

While his starting spot is a matter of circumstance, Larson is more than comfortable with being on the pole at Sonoma. He won the pole at the California road course every year from 2017 to 2019, though he hopes to turn his luck around as he has just one top ten in six career starts there (2019). Larson, who dominated Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 en route to making Hendrick Motorsports the winningest team in Cup history, has won on every track configuration except for road courses, and has just five top tens in sixteen tries. His best RC finish is fourth at Watkins Glen as a rookie in 2014.

Hendrick cars occupy the top three with current road course king Chase Elliott—who won the most recent road race at COTA in May—and William Byron starting second and third, respectively. Hendrick was also responsible for the last front-row RC lockout by one team with Byron and Alex Bowman at the Charlotte Roval in 2019; the feat was also accomplished by Elliott and Byron earlier that year at Watkins Glen (both races were won by Elliott). Bowman starts seventh.

Starting thirty-first will be Ben Rhodes in the #77 for Spire Motorsports; with the Camping World Truck Series taking the week off, Rhodes is making his Cup début in a car usually driven by Justin Haley. Rick Ware Racing team-mates Garrett Smithley and Cody Ware switch rides from Charlotte as the latter returns to his usual #51 and the former goes to the #53, the one-off number change was spurred as Smithley had been locked into Ware’s #51 while Ware was planning to run the Indianapolis 500.

The lone road course ringer entered is Scott Heckert in Live Fast Motorsports‘s #78. Heckert débuted in the Cup Series at the Daytona RC in February while Kyle Tilley was the team’s specialist for COTA. 

Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
2	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
3	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
4	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
5	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
6	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
7	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
8	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford
9	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford
10	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
11	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford
12	17	Chris Buescher	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford
13	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford
14	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet
15	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota
16	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet
17	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford
18	43	Erik Jones	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet
19	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
20	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
21	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford
22	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet
23	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford
24	6	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford
25	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford
26	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford
27	37	Ryan Preece	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet
28	38	Anthony Alfredo	Front Row Motorsports	Ford
29	42	Ross Chastain	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet
30	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet
31	77	Ben Rhodes*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet
32	15	James Davison	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet
33	00	Quin Houff	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet
34	53	Garrett Smithley*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford
35	78	Scott Heckert	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford
36	52	Josh Bilicki	Rick Ware Racing	Ford
37	51	Cody Ware*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet

Xfinity: Defending Mid-Ohio winner Cindric on pole

When the Xfinity Series last raced at Mid-Ohio in 2019, Cindric scored his second career victory and established himself as one of the series’ top road racers. Fast forward to this upcoming weekend and Cindric is now an eleven-time race winner, the reigning champion, current points leader, and the pole sitter. Cindric has started on the pole five times in 2021, and the former multi-discipline racer has enjoyed great success on road courses with four wins and top tens in all but three attempts.

Ty Gibbs, who won last Saturday at Charlotte for his second victory in just six career Xfinity starts, joins Cindric on the front row. The 18-year-old won in his Xfinity début on the Daytona RC, while his #54 Joe Gibbs Racing machine won the second road race of the year at COTA with Kyle Busch.

Being a road race, various teams like Our Motorsports and JR Motorsports continue to enlist the services of ringers like Andy Lally and Miguel Paludo. With Paludo in JRM’s #8, Josh Berry instead joins Jordan Anderson Racing‘s #31, which is locked into the race with the help of his win at Martinsville in April and strong runs by Tyler Reddick. Truck regular Kris Wright continues to work as Sam Hunt Racing‘s ringer, while Preston Pardus bounces from B.J. McLeod Motorsports‘s #76 entry to the #90 and Ryan Ellis is in BJMM’s #99.

A number of drivers who failed to qualify at Charlotte return for Mid-Ohio: both Mike Harmon Racing cars of Bayley Currey and Kyle Weatherman, Joe Graf Jr. of SS-Green Light Racing, and Jimmy Means Racing‘s Gray Gaulding.

Matt Jaskol and Stephen Leicht comprise the driver lineup for MBM Motorsports, but David Starr is not as fortunate as he and the #13 are locked out of the grid. Dillon Bassett and his #77 Bassett Racing car could not make the Charlotte field and the same has occurred for Mid-Ohio.

Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	22	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford
2	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
3	20	Harrison Burton	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
4	10	Jeb Burton	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet
5	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet
6	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet
7	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
8	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet
9	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford
10	11	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet
11	18	Daniel Hemric	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
12	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet
13	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet
14	2	Myatt Snider	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
15	1	Michael Annett	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet
16	36	Alex Labbe	DGM Racing	Chevrolet
17	4	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet
18	02	Brett Moffitt	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet
19	48	Jade Buford	Big Machine Racing	Chevrolet
20	6	Landon Cassill	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet
21	17	Cody Ware	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford
22	78	Jesse Little	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Toyota
23	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Chevrolet
24	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet
25	44	Tommy Joe Martins	Martins Motorsports	Chevrolet
26	0	Jeffrey Earnhardt	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet
27	23	Andy Lally	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet
28	99	Ryan Ellis	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Ford
29	8	Miguel Paludo	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet
30	15	Colby Howard	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet
31	31	Josh Berry	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet
32	5	Matt Mills	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet
33	26	Kris Wright*	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota
34	66	Matt Jaskol	MBM Motorsports	Toyota
35	47	Kyle Weatherman	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet
36	61	Stephen Leicht	MBM Motorsports	Toyota
37	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet
38	74	Bayley Currey*	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet
39	90	Preston Pardus	DGM Racing	Chevrolet
40	52	Gray Gaulding	Jimmy Means Racing	Chevrolet