Friday’s On Track Activity Canceled at Atlanta Due to Rain, Lightning Storm

UPDATE: Friday, March 18, 2022 at 3:00 PM ET:

NASCAR has announced that in addition to the cancelation of NASCAR Cup Series qualifying on Saturday, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series qualifying will also be canceled.

All three starting lineups will be set by the NASCAR rulebook (performance metric).

Instead of qualifying, each series will have a practice session on Saturday to help competitors get a feel of the newly reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway.

NASCAR will issue an official revised schedule for Saturday’s on-track activity at a later time.

ORIGINAL STORY: Friday, March 18, 2022 at 2:00 PM ET

All on track activity scheduled for Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway has been canceled due to a large rain and lightning storm that had been in the area all afternoon.

Atlanta Motor Speedway made the official call to halt the three practice sessions, one NASCAR Cup Series, one NASCAR Xfinity Series and one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series that were slated for Friday.

Qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, which was set for Saturday has been wiped out and it will be replaced by a practice session instead, as this is the first race on a newly reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Per the NASCAR rulebook, the NASCAR performance metric will determine the starting lineup for Sunday’s race. This should mean that last week’s winner Chase Briscoe will start on pole, while Ryan Blaney will lineup in second on Sunday, however, NASCAR has yet to release the official starting lineup for Sunday’s race.

Currently, qualifying for the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is scheduled for Saturday, but that could be revised to include practices as well. NASCAR is currently deliberating the course of action for the NXS and NCWTS races.

If NASCAR does make more changes to the weekend on-track schedule, they will be added into this story as an update.