Jimmie Johnson Poconos
Sprint Cup Series points leader No. 48 Jimmie Johnson leads off Sunday's Party In The Poconos 400. Reuters

Rain washed out qualifying laps for NASCAR’s Party In The Poconos 400, so the starting grid was decided by Sprint Cup standings with points leader Jimmie Johnson leading off.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver has done little the last two weeks to pad his lead, coming 22nd at Charlotte and 17th in Dover after finishing in the top five in his three previous races.

Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer, Matt Kenseth, and Kevin Harvick round out the rest of the top starting five. Richard Childress Racing’s Harvick has been on the best run of the bunch, finishing no lower than 11th in his last four races, including a victory in Charlotte.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is still sixth in the standings, but has lived off his top ten finishes in the first 10 races of the season, and will have to make some noise at Poconos Raceway if he hopes to move up.

No. 22 Joey Logano is the defending champion at the Poconos, parlaying last year’s pole into a 49 laps led around the 2.5 mile oval track for the victory.

The Nationwide series race was also bumped, and will start at 10 a.m. Eastern, and the rain should not cause any more delays Sunday with an expected high of 82 and partly cloudy skies.

The race begins at 1 p.m. Eastern and will be broadcast by TNT.

Starting Grid

  1. Jimmie Johnson
  2. Carl Edwards
  3. Clint Bowyer
  4. Matt Kenseth
  5. Kevin Harvick
  6. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
  7. Kasey Kahne
  8. Kyle Busch
  9. Paul Menard
  10. Brad Keselowski
  11. Jeff Gordon
  12. Aric Almirola
  13. Greg Biffle
  14. Mark Martin
  15. Martin Truex Jr.
  16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  17. Denny Hamlin
  18. AJ Allmendinger
  19. Tony Stewart
  20. Kurt Busch
  21. Joey Logano
  22. Jamie McMurray
  23. Ryan Newman
  24. Jeff Burton
  25. Juan Pablo Montoya
  26. Marcos Ambrose
  27. Casey Mears
  28. David Ragan
  29. Bobby Labonte
  30. Danica Patrick
  31. David Gilliland
  32. Dave Blaney
  33. David Stremme
  34. David Reutimann
  35. J.J. Yeley
  36. Josh Wise
  37. Landon Cassill
  38. Timmy Hill
  39. Travis Kvapil
  40. Joe Nemechek
  41. Michael McDowell
  42. Jason Leffler
  43. Scott Riggs