NASCAR Kentucky 2016 qualifying results: Rain cancels time trials, Kevin Harvick awarded pole

Heavy rain and strong winds canceled Sprint Cup Series qualifying Friday, necessitating NASCAR set the field based on owner points for Saturday night’s race at Kentucky Speedway.

Points leader Kevin Harvick will start on the pole for the Quaker State 400, sharing the front row with Brad Keselowski, who is ranked second and coming off a win last week at Daytona International Speedway.

Kurt Busch, Joey Logano and Carl Edwards round out the top five. Defending series champion and race winner Kyle Busch lines up sixth, with Martin Truex Jr. seventh, Chase Elliott eighth, Jimmie Johnson ninth and Denny Hamlin 10th.

Drivers were on the track for approximately 25 minutes for practice Friday morning when rain began falling on the 1.5-mile track located in Sparta, Ky. The truncated session saw Hamlin post the fastest single-lap speed (188.285 mph) followed by Johnson (188.121 mph). But shortly after recording his time, Johnson got loose and body-slammed the outside wall, severely damaging his No. 48 Chevrolet. He will move to a backup car for Saturday’s race.

“I didn’t have anything go wrong, I just got wide and the car just started going straight and it wouldn’t turn,” Johnson said. “I was in the marbles. I couldn’t see the line where the track was clean and dirty and it just kept going straight and straight and straight and hit the wall.”

This marks the third time qualifying has been called off in six Cup races at Kentucky, which began hosting premier division events in 2011. In both instances where qualifying was canceled (2011, 2015) Busch would go on to win.

Quaker State 400 starting lineup