NASCAR has announced a double penalty for Kyle Larson and his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team ahead of Saturday’s race at Atlanta.

NASCAR released an official report on the matter ahead of the race, with officials penalizing the team after two pre-race inspection failures at EchoPark Speedway, formerly known as Atlanta Motor Speedway.

READ MORE: NASCAR Race Today: Atlanta start times, schedule and how to watch live on tv

The team eventually passed technical inspection on their third attempt, but have been hit with multiple penalties having failed twice beforehand.

The No. 5 car chief, Jesse Saunders, has been ejected for the remainder of this weekend’s event, for example, whilst Larson and his crew have also forfeited their pit selection for Saturday’s race.

It is the second time in as many days that Hendrick Motorsports have been punished by NASCAR, with the series hitting the team with a huge penalty following a post-race car inspection after last weekend’s action at Pocono.

Kyle Larson is set to start Saturday’s Quaker State 400 in 11th.

READ MORE: NASCAR owner agrees to sell Cup Series team

What is NASCAR tech?

Every weekend, no matter the race, track, or event, NASCAR requires all Cup Series teams to pass inspection before hitting the circuit.

If a team fails tech on the first instance, it must fix the issue and repeat the process all over again until it passes.

If a car fails once, there is no punishment. However, if you fail twice or more, punishments are handed out, such as in Larson and the No. 5’s case above.

According to NASCAR, the point of inspections is to level the sport’s playing field as much as possible.

The website also outlines the five stations of a standard inspection, which are as follows:

Station 1: Car is elevated to visually inspect the nose, under the body and inside.

Stations 2-3: Body is visually inspected using a handheld template to ensure the body conforms to regulations.

Station 4: Optical scanning is used to inspect the chassis and body of car.

Station 5: Holding blocks are removed and final safety inspection is done.

NASCAR HEADLINES: Joey Logano claims $1 MILLION reward as Cup Series team set for sale

Related

NASCAR qualifying at Atlanta was heavily impacted by the weather in Georgia, with some parts of the running cancelled.

The final round of Xfinity Series qualifying was cancelled on Friday afternoon due to lightning in the area, which also cut into time for Cup Series qualifying – which was limited to one single-lap run.

READ MORE: NASCAR Race Today: Atlanta start times, schedule and how to watch live on tv

Joey Logano took pole with a great time of 30.979sec, but it still took a tie-break for him to place first ahead of Josh Berry, who set the same time down to a thousandth of a second but lost out on owner points.

Denny Hamlin joked on social media during the weather delay that the session should be called early for safety, with a nudge and wink to the fact that he’d start right up front if the session wasn’t completed.

That would’ve been a much better result for the recent father, who predicted a 24th place start but who in fact qualified all the way back in 33rd in a 40-man field.

With that said, let’s take a look at Friday’s qualifying results in full!

NASCAR HEADLINES: Joey Logano claims $1 MILLION reward as Cup Series team set for sale

NASCAR Cup Series: Who is on pole at Atlanta?

After qualifying on Friday, here is the starting lineup for Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta, with the leading lap time and gaps included.

READ MORE: NASCAR owner agrees to sell Cup Series team

Related

NASCAR starting positions for EchoPark Speedway

NASCAR Cup Series drivers are unloaded at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway). The field is rolling to the 1.5-mile track for a round of qualifying to set the lineup for Saturday night’s race.

View the Atlanta starting lineup for the NASCAR Cup Series.

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ARCA: Prac/Qual | Race
Truck: Prac | Qual | Race
Xfinity: Qual | Race
Cup: Qual | Race

Atlanta / Lime Rock TV Schedule

Due to a 30 minute lightning delay, this qualifying session has been trimmed from two rounds to just a single round. After 14 cars took to the track, another lightning strike has further delayed qualifying by 30 more minutes.

Joey Logano will start from the pole position in Saturday night’s race. He turned a laptime at 30.979 seconds with an average speed of 178.960mph.

EchoPark Speedway
Starting Lineup
June 28, 2025
NASCAR Cup Series

Pos | Driver | Best Time

1. Joey Logano
30.979

2. Josh Berry
30.979

3. Ryan Blaney
30.983

4. Austin Cindric
31.037

5. Ryan Preece
31.130

6. Brad Keselowski
31.153

7. Cole Custer
31.155

8. Zane Smith
31.160

9. Alex Bowman
31.203

10. Chase Briscoe
31.210

11. Kyle Larson
31.237

12. Austin Dillon
31.242

13. Chris Buescher
31.247

14. Ty Dillon
31.265

15. Chase Elliott
31.284

16. Ty Gibbs
31.298

17. Todd Gilliland
31.302

18. William Byron
31.310

19. John Hunter Nemechek
31.315

20. Riley Herbst
31.315

21. AJ Allmendinger
31.329

22. Justin Haley
31.329

23. Tyler Reddick
31.331

24. Bubba Wallace
31.353

25. Corey LaJoie
31.356

26. Erik Jones
31.358

27. Noah Gragson
31.376

28. Christopher Bell
31.405

29. Kyle Busch
31.407

30. Carson Hocevar
31.409

31. Daniel Suarez
31.446

32. Michael McDowell
31.462

33. Denny Hamlin
31.463

34. Ross Chastain
31.484

35. Shane van Gisbergen
31.485

36. Connor Zilisch
31.500

37. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
31.537

38. BJ McLeod
31.550

39. Cody Ware
31.564

40. David Starr
34.113

Links

EchoPark Speedway | NASCAR

Joey Logano (pictured) led an armada of Fords into the top eight starting spot for Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway.

Logano clocked in at 30.979 seconds (178.960 mph) in Friday’s qualifying session to secure his first Busch Light Pole Award of the season, his third at EchoPark and the 32nd of his career.

Logano matched the time posted earlier by Josh Berry of Wood Brothers Racing, but the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford got the nod for the pole on an owner points tiebreaker.

Ryan Blaney posted the third fastest lap at 178.937 mph, followed by Austin Cindric at 178.626 mph, as Team Penske drivers and the Penske affiliate Wood Brothers locked out the first two rows for Sunday’s race, the opening round of the 32-driver In-Season Challenge.

Logano faces ninth-place qualifier Alex Bowman in the first round.

“Being up front and controlling this race is the name of the game,” said Logano, who won last year’s second Atlanta race, which was held in September. “If you can get up there and solidify the top position, I feel like you can stay there. The thing is, there are a lot of ‘What ifs?’ that play out in this race, a lot of cautions that may be timed in a different way, where it can jumble up the field.

“It’s hard to say you’re going to be leading every lap… The good thing is that we controlled what we could today. I’m super proud of Team Penske, Roush Yates (Engines), Ford, obviously to keep our Mustangs up there. It really shows the ability to repeat from car to car, which is really hard to do.

“We tied with the 21 (Berry) and the other cars were within a couple hundredths of a second.”

Ryan Preece, Brad Keselowski, Cole Custer and Zane Smith completed the Ford sweep of the top eight starting spots.

Bowman drove the fastest Chevrolet to ninth on the grid, and Pocono Raceway winner Chase Briscoe was 10th in the quickest Toyota.

Denny Hamlin, top seed in the In-Season Challenge, qualified 33rd but expects his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to fare better in race trim. Nevertheless, Hamlin starts 19 spots behind Ty Dillon, the driver he has to beat to advance to the second round of the tournament.

Briscoe, the second seed, starts 17 positions ahead of close friend Noah Gragson, his first-round opponent.

Qualifying was interrupted by a 30-minute lightning hold, but no rain hit the track despite storms in the area.

Starting Lineup

NASCAR begins its In-Season Challenge during the race at Echo Park Speedway, where 32 drivers will compete in head-to-head matchups.

The NASCAR Cup Series rolls into the Atlanta area for a Saturday night race that will also serve as the debut of its inaugural In-Season Challenge.

(GMM) Carlos Sainz Jr. (pictured with Sainz Sr.) admits he is disappointed for “motorsport” that his father has bowed out of the race to replace controversial FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

Rally icon Sainz senior, 63, declared this week that after a long period of deliberation, he had decided not to tackle the presidential elections in December.

“Disappointed?” Williams driver Sainz, 30, said when asked about it in Austria.

“As his son, no, but as a motorsport fan, yes.”

Indeed, Sainz senior had revealed over the past several weeks that he had been personally head-hunted by many who regarded him as a credible alternative to the increasingly divisive Ben Sulayem.

“Many would have liked to see my father trying and seeing what he could have done for the sport,” Sainz confirmed.

“But as his son, and after evaluating with him a bit all the aspects he had to be involved in and manage to confirm his candidacy for the presidency, I think I understand why he isn’t doing it and why he’s letting it go to focus on his own affairs.”

4-time grand prix winner Sainz also hinted that his father is unlikely to launch a more credible bid for the presidency of F1’s governing body in the future.

“Never say never,” said Sainz, “but I think the ideal time was now, given the current situation, for him to come in and try to have a positive impact.

“I don’t know if it would be ideal in four or eight years, but yes, never say never. But right now he is certainly not interested.”

When asked what sort of contribution his father would have made to the FIA, Williams driver Sainz pointed to what he sees as some of the current problems.

“In recent years, drivers have felt a certain lack of transparency and understanding with those at the top of the FIA,” he explained.

“And while the intentions have sometimes been good and the way the FIA has tried to do things has always been in the best spirit, I feel that, as drivers, we have always been a bit excluded. At times, our opinions have not been heard enough.”

Some think it’s interesting that, just as Sainz senior bows out of the running, the Ben Sulayem-led FIA has suddenly made the F1 stewards’ penalty guidelines public.

“Sometimes there have been corrections,” 30-year-old Sainz acknowledges, “but clearly, on other occasions, we haven’t felt the same, and we’ve made that very clear in our statements.

“We’ll see if it improves, and perhaps today’s press release from the FIA is already a sign of intentions to make everything a little clearer.”