NASCAR at Kentucky Speedway 2016: Lineup, starting grid for Quaker State 400

NASCAR announced the procedural rule change a week ago that it would no longer set the starting lineup off practice speeds when qualifying is canceled, instead opting to use owner points.

That change went into effect beginning this weekend at Kentucky Speedway, and coincidentally it came into play immediately when heavy rain Friday washed out Sprint Cup qualifying. The revision worked in the favor of Kevin Harvick, the Sprint Cup Series points leader who now lines up first and will lead the field to the green flag in Saturday night's Quaker State 400.

Through 17 races Harvick's accumulated one victory, seven top-five and 13 top-10 finishes along with a series-best 8.9 average finish. The 2014 series champion is a virtual lock to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff and there is every reason to think he will enter the final race of the season for a third consecutive year with a chance to take the title.

"As far as the season, I feel like for us we have overcome a lot," Harvick said. "We have had a lot of issues and things that have cropped up that we've been able to cover up with good finishes that we have kept building on."

Starting on the pole provides Harvick the opportunity to actually lead a lap at Kentucky -- the only track where he has never done so of the 23 that host premier division events. That's seemingly a statistical oddity considering Harvick's storied 16-year career, except that the 1.5-mile oval was just added to the Cup schedule in 2011.

Harvick and the other 39 drivers in the field will have to adapt to a track that's been radically altered since the Cup Series visited last summer. The banking was increased in Turns 1 and 2 and the surface completely repaved, which increased speeds and the level of grip but appears to have narrowed the racing groove to essentially the bottom lane.

"The hard part about repaves is a lot of places you can go and be over aggressive and slide up out of the groove," Harvick said. "You are over aggressive here and you see what happens: You wind up knocking the side off of the car into the fence.

"I'm just proud that we are able to come to a race track that is still very edgy. New paves will always be, but when you have racing that is capable of racing side-by-side that is a really good sign. I'm pretty happy about that."

Quaker State 400 starting lineup