Kentucky qualifying rained out for Cup and XFINITY Series

NASCAR has cancelled qualifying in both the Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series due to inclement weather.

Per the rulebook, the starting lineups will be based on first practice speeds. 

Kyle Larson will lead the way to the green in the Quaker State 400 after posting a lap of 182.537 mph on Friday. Followed by Brad Keselowski, Jeff Gordon, Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson.

"I was glad we got a little track time there," Larson said. "I was quick off of the truck, which I was proud of the team for...I was able to lay down a real fast lap, went back to race trim and was fast there, too."

Ryan Blaney, Travis Kvapil and Michael McDowell failed to qualifying for the Cup race based on race attempts. For the Wood Brothers, consecutive rain-outs have kept the No. 21 Ford from running for two-straight weeks.

"The rules are the rules," said team owner Eddie Wood. "In the event of a rainout they set the field by attempts, which means how many races you've attempted to race this year. So us and the 95 have attempted less races than 43 other guys, so we're the ones that are out.

"Missing races, if you're slow and you miss a race because you're not fast enough, is a bad deal. That just kills your soul. But you can't do anything about the weather. We've been really lucky the last seven years and haven't missed one but now the numbers seem to be leveling out."

On the XFINITY side, J.J. Yeley and Ty Dillon will start from the front row followed by Brendan Gaughan, Keselowski, Paul Menard and Kyle Busch. 

“We’re slowly catching up to where the big guys are,” Yeley said. “Kentucky is one of my favorite tracks. I’m looking forward to a good run today.”

NASCAR felt the Cup teams time was better spent dialing in the new low downforce package which was implemented for this racetrack. Logano’s first impression of the new package was that the cars did not ha

“They slide all over the place,” said Logano, who posted a fast lap of 180.102 mph. “What happens in traffic is still probably an unknown, but there was a lot of slipping and sliding around and trying to figure out which way the car is going when you go into the corner is kind of hard.  We’ll see.”