MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Sheldon Creed will start first for Friday night’s NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series playoff race at Martinsville Speedway.
Creed earned the top spot on the grid thanks to NASCAR’s metric qualifying formula.
The NASCAR matrix factors in a driver’s lap speed ranking from the previous race, the last race finish for both driver and owner and the car’s current rank in the owner standings.
Lap speed is weighted at 15 percent, previous race finish at 25 percent for the driver and owner results and owner points position at 35 percent to calculate the final metric score.
Driver and owner playoff-eligible entries are ranked at the front of the field based on their metric scores from lowest to highest, with all non-playoff entries lined up behind the playoff cars in similar fashion.
Creed will start first thanks to a metric score of 1.45, factoring in his win last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, the fourth-fastest lap from that event and his point-leading status.
His GMS Racing teammate, Zane Smith, will join him on the front row. Austin Hill and Brett Moffitt will start third and fourth, respectively, with Matt Crafton gridding in fifth place.
Tyler Ankrum, Ben Rhodes and Grant Enfinger fill out the playoff drivers in the first four rows, with Brandon Jones starting ninth in the Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 51, which remains alive in the race for the owner championship.
Raphael Lessard starts highest among the non-playoff contenders in 10th.
To view the complete starting lineup and performance matrix breakdown, click here.
The NASCAR Hall of Fame 200 is scheduled for an 8 p.m. ET start Friday night, with live coverage on FS1, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.