Bell on pole at Auto Club Speedway after rained out qualifying

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | February 25, 2023 11:13 AM ET

Christopher Bell will start from pole at Auto Club Speedway through the metric ranking as NASCAR officials have canceled all Cup Series activity at the track for Saturday.

Teams were scheduled to get on track for practice and qualifying on Saturday, but heavy rain has been drenching the west coast for days and with no break in the weather expected, the Cup Series garage will not open.

Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will join bell on the front row. The metric is weighted between a driver’s finish from the previous race, the owner finish, owner’s points, and the driver’s fastest lap from the previous race.

Joey Logano and Alex Bowman will make up row two, starting third and fourth, respectively. Chris Buescher starts fifth.

AJ Allmendinger will start sixth, Daniel Suarez seventh, and Ross Chastain eighth, with Ryan Blaney ninth and Kevin Harvick 10th.

Cody Ware will start 11th, a career-high for the Rick Ware Racing driver. Ware is coming off a top-10 finish in last weekend’s Daytona 500.

Corey LaJoie will start 12th, while the defending race winner, Kyle Larson, will start 15th.

Starting deep in the field will be drivers such as Chase Briscoe (31st), William Byron (32nd), Chase Elliott (33rd), and Tyler Reddick (35th). All four drivers failed to finish the Daytona 500, which affected their metric scores.

With only 36 drivers entered in the Pala Casino 400, all make the field.

Sunday’s race is scheduled to be the final event held on the two-mile Auto Club Speedway configuration. NASCAR officials and the track continue to work toward reconfiguring the facility into a short track.