Chase Elliott on pole after Cup Series qualifying canceled due to rain at New Hampshire

Bad luck for NASCAR fans, but good luck for Chase Elliott who will now start on the pole after qualifying was rained out at New Hampshire. The Magic Mile needs to use some of that magic to make the rain go away.

Chase Elliott gets a big break and is rewarded for his hard work in recent weeks. Moving up to the points lead in the regular season standings, consistently finishing near the front each week. It’s been a solid season for Elliott overall.

Of course, it isn’t an official pole award. The order is set by the metric. NASCAR hopes to have practice so teams can get their cars dialed in. Then they hope Mother Nature is nice enough to let us have an Xfinity Series race today, too.

Rain is good for corn and, in this case, Chase Elliott. Not so much for NASCAR overall.

NASCAR Cup Series qualifying has been canceled due to weather.

Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney will lead the field to green in New Hampshire. pic.twitter.com/HoDoQ4iGO2

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) June 22, 2024

NASCAR is using a different tire setup at the track this year. I think that the purpose of having a practice session makes sense in that regard. They might also want those Cup cars to help get the track even drier with some laps on there and maybe put some rubber down before Xfinity fires off this afternoon.

It is a battle and a race against Mother Nature this weekend. We might be sitting here on Monday with an early afternoon race or two.

This will be the best starting position for Chase Elliott ever at New Hampshire. He has started as high as P2 in the past and P3 on two other occasions. Elliott has never won at New Hampshire but in 2022 he finished.

Chase Elliott up front, practice up in the air

NASCAR hopes to have practice. It would help these teams get set up and dialed in for Sunday. Then again, the chaos of not having any track time prior to the race could produce an interesting result as well.

Chase Elliott and others are going to have to be prepared to use wet weather tires potentially this weekend. That will throw a wrench into things for sure. New Hampshire has bad luck with weather and this year is no different, it appears.

Last year, this race was dominated by Martin Truex Jr. With how much that team has lacked speed, a good performance this week could go a long way. Truex Jr. will start P7 on Sunday due to qualifying raining out.

Does Chase Elliott have a shot at his first Magic Mile victory? He has been quietly one of the best drivers all season. Or will it be Ryan Blaney or Christopher Bell instead?