Kyle Larson will start first at Texas
Kyle Larson will have the best starting spot at Texas as he goes for his eighth win of 2021.
Larson will start first on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, NBC) as he attempts to defend his All-Star Race win at Texas Motor Speedway. Larson won the non-points event earlier in the season in the midst of a run where he won four races in four weeks.
If you count the All-Star Race, Larson already has eight Cup Series wins in 2021. He won his seventh points race of the season at the Charlotte Roval as he got his third road course win of the season.
Any playoff driver who wins Sunday's race is automatically guaranteed to race for the championship at Phoenix on Nov. 7. The eight remaining playoff drivers are starting in the top eight spots. The eight drivers eliminated from the playoffs are starting in spots Nos. 9-16 while all non-playoff drivers occupy the rest of the starting spots.
Here's how the field will line up. The starting lineup was determined by NASCAR's qualifying formula because there's no practice or qualifying ahead of the race.
Texas starting lineup
1. Kyle Larson
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Kyle Busch
4. Ryan Blaney
5. Joey Logano
6. Chase Elliott
7. Brad Keselowski
8. Martin Truex Jr.
9. Tyler Reddick
10. Chris Buescher
11. Christopher Bell
12. William Byron
13. Matt DiBenedetto
14. Alex Bowman
15. Austin Dillon
16. Michael McDowell
17. Kurt Busch
18. Bubba Wallace
19. Daniel Suarez
20. Cole Custer
21. Erik Jones
22. Aric Almirola
23. Ryan Preece
24. Kevin Harvick
25. Ross Chastain
26. Chase Briscoe
27. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
28. Anthony Alfredo
29. Corey LaJoie
30. Quin Houff
31. Ryan Newman
32. Justin Haley
33. Josh Bilicki
34. Cody Ware
35. BJ McLeod
36. Garrett Smithley
37. Joey Gase
38. David Starr
39. Timmy Hill
