Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Denny Hamlin will lead the field to green in the Busch Clash at the Coliseum on Saturday night with some other marquee names watching from the outside of their cars.
Due to the race being moved up a day, the result of a historically awful storm rolling in overnight, the heats and last chance race were scrapped with the 23-car starting lineup determined by group qualifying and a provisional for the highest driver in points to not make the show.
Ironically, that was defending champion Ryan Blaney, who gambled on turning laps on old tires and didn’t make the show on time as a result. Below are the drivers who failed to make the race.
Austin Cindric
Austin Dillon
Josh Berry
Kaz Grala
Josh Williams
Chris Buescher
Christopher Bell
Harrison Burton
Daniel Hemric
Erik Jones
Zane Smith
Carson Hocevar
Daniel Suarez
Bell made the final four last year and just didn’t have enough speed to advance.
“Practice was good,” Bell said. “I felt like we were in a really good spot, and just didn’t have in qualifying.”
What changed from practice to qualifying?
“Just no rear grip in our Mobil 1 Camry for some reason,” he said. “Just couldn’t get off the corners.”
Hamlin, still recovering from off-season shoulder surgery, posted the fastest time in the session and will lead the field to green alongside Joey Logano.
“Pretty happy with this Sports Clips Toyota so far,” Hamlin said. “We only have short runs here and there but it’s the Clash so you never know, especially with the smaller field size, the strong cars will be able to show out. Chris and the team did a good job preparing the car and we’ll do what we can.”
The Busch Clash main event is 150 laps with a halfway break after Lap 75. The starting lineup can be found below. It is set to begin at 8:05 p.m. on FS1.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.