Elliott Aces The Matrix For Daytona Road Course

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Chase Elliott will start from the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at the 3.61-mile Daytona Int’l Speedway road course layout.

Elliott, who was the runner-up in Sunday’s 63rd Daytona 500, earned the Busch Pole Award with the highest metric score among the 40 cars entered to compete.

Lap speed is weighted at 15 percent, previous race finish at 25 percent for the driver and owner results and owner points position at 35 percent to calculate the final metric score.

Elliott earned the pole with a metric score of 3.0, factoring in his second-place finish at Daytona, the fourth-fastest lap from the event and his fourth-place seeding in the point standings after the first of 36 races this season.

Joining Elliott on the front row for the Daytona road course race will be Daytona 500 champion Michael McDowell, whose win helped propel him to the second-best metric score in the field at 3.9.

Cup Series point leader Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick fill out the top five on the grid for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 253.

Open driver Ryan Preece starts sixth Sunday after a strong Speedweeks, followed by Corey LaJoie, Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain and Bubba Wallace.

The complete starting lineup can be found below.

The O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 goes green at 3 p.m. ET Sunday, with live coverage on FOX, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.