NASCAR Qualifying Results: Atlanta - Massive blow for title contenders as session cancelled

NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at Atlanta was rained out on Saturday morning, leaving some drivers at a serious disadvantage.

The session was due to get underway at 11am ET but, with rain and lightning in the area, and two races to get through later in the day, the session was called early.

With the session rained out, the start order will be set in order of NASCAR's Performance Metric, made up as follows. 15% of a fastest lap time position, 25% of the driver’s previous race finish position, 25% of the owner’s previous race finish position, and 35% of the owner points position.

With just one race run so far this season, that leaves things almost entirely based on how teams did at the Daytona 500 – putting Tyler Reddick on pole alongside Joey Logano, but leaving a number of title challengers well down the order.

Two of last year's Championship 4 will start down in the bottom ten, with Denny Hamlin kicking off in 29th and Chase Briscoe all the way down as the 34th starter. Team Penske didn't get out unscathed despite Logano's good fortune, with Ryan Blaney starting on the 11th row and Christopher Bell slotting in between Hamlin and Briscoe in 32nd.

Officials are still hopeful of fitting in Saturday's Truck and O'Reilly Series races, set to start at 1:30pm and 5pm ET respectively. If the adverse conditions persist for too long though, they will both be moved back to Sunday.

The grid for Sunday's race will now look as follows...

TRUCK SERIES RACE TODAY: Atlanta start times, schedule, how to watch live on TV and stream

NASCAR Cup Series Atlanta starting grid

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