BRISTOL, Tenn. — 2023 Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney may be starting 29th in Saturday night's 500-lap race at Bristol Motor Speedway, but he's not complaining about NASCAR's starting lineup metric.
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Sure, he would like to have a starting spot inside the top 10, especially with stage points playing a much bigger role in the Chase. But at this point, there is no purpose in making a stink out of it.
"I think the metric is very solid for kind of lining people up for qualifying on any weekend," Blaney told media members on Friday. "And sometimes you have bad weeks or you don't finish good, and you're gonna qualify towards the front.
"Or you're gonna — if it rains out qualifying — you're gonna start at the back. So I don't really think it's something that needs to get too much traction, and this is from someone who's (been) bit by it a couple times in three weeks, but just kind of part of the game."
The NASCAR qualifying order metric relies heavily on the previous event of the schedule. Chase drivers are allowed to qualify last under normal conditions, one of the perks of competing for the championship.
But if rain washes out qualifying, the order sets the starting lineup based on fastest lap time position (15%), the driver's final race finish position (25%), the owner's final race finish position (25%), and the owner points position (35%).
For Blaney, this means that he has twice had to fall back to the start of the field for Chase races due to issues the previous week.
Correcting an earlier post: This is the Cup Series starting lineup after rain and lightning canceled qualifying at Bristol. It didn't officially cancel practice. pic.twitter.com/7qXAGfeTXU
— John Newby (@JohnNewby_) September 18, 2026
He started the Chase lining up 24th at Darlington Raceway. He had been collected in a crash at Daytona International Speedway, and then lightning canceled both practice and qualifying.
Blaney had to work his way through the field early to get into contention for stage points. He achieved this as he finished fifth in stage 1 and sixth in stage 2. He then finished third in the race after overcoming the metric.
The race weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway actually had qualifying, and Blaney used the session to secure the third spot on the grid.
He then scored 14 stage points early in the race before a blown brake rotor sent his No. 12 Ford into the outside wall. He crashed and ended the day in the 35th position.
With the lightning and rain canceling practice and qualifying at Bristol, Blaney fell back in the starting lineup due to how the crash affected the metric. Now, he must overcome this setback yet again as he tries to erase championship leader Denny Hamlin's 33-point advantage.
"It stinks what happened last week," Blaney said. "We did a great job through the race of getting us where we need to be and then not finishing obviously is a bummer, but that's racing and that's the way it goes.
"We're fortunate to where we're not as far back out of the lead as I thought we were going to be after we had our problem, so it's still attainable for sure."
But while Blaney isn't stressing about the metric, other drivers have voiced their opinions about it. Defending champion Kyle Larson said that he would like to see a different factor come into play when weather cancels qualifying sessions.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver has both benefited from the metric and seen it bite him during the Chase. He had to start 25th at Darlington due to a 31st-place finish at Daytona, but he will start first at Bristol due to a win at World Wide Technology Raceway.
"Well, I think the whole metric, if I'm not mistaken, came about during the COVID era, right," Larson said at WWT Raceway. "When there was no no qualifying, so I think it was a good way to shake the field up back then and try to make it fair, where it wasn't the same starting lineup every week based off points.
"So yeah. I mean, selfishly, after a weekend like last (at Darlington), I wish we'd just go back to lining up off points because we don't see the metric kind of come into play.
"I mean, you can have the metric to set the qualifying order, but I think just lining up the field based off points would be good, especially with in the Chase now or with this point format, every point being so important."
