A freak weather event at Kansas Speedway didn’t just cancel qualifying; it may have handed William Byron the keys to the race before a single lap was run. In the upcoming O’Reilly race at Kansas, several series regulars have already gotten unlucky even before the race started, but Byron and Carson Kvapil have smoothly benefited from NASCAR’s rulebook.

William Byron lands an unfair advantage over series regulars because of NASCAR rules

Ahead of the practice and qualifying sessions for Saturday’s O’Reilly race, bad weather came into play and canceled the sessions. Due to this, the O’Reilly race lineup has been set up by the rule book, which is by the NASCAR metric. The main twist here is that the driver with the lowest metric was placed the highest on the qualifying order.

This means, in the case of William Byron, who had the second-lowest metric and was placed second-last as per the qualifying order, will now start second, on a track where track position is key. Similarly, Carson Kvapil who was placed last will take the pole position.

As Bob Pockrass tweeted, the rule states that the positions are decided by the “lowest score to highest so reverse of qualifying order.”

In the Cup race from last season, Kyle Larson started the race from pole, led over 200 laps, managed his tires and fuel on the way to a win. Moreover, the starting position also determines a team’s pit box, which naturally impacts the pit road time during stops at crucial points in the race.

But just as important as the qualifying result because of bad weather could be for William Byron in a good way, it could be just as important for series regulars in a bad way. Drivers like Jesse Love, Corey Day, and Rajah Caruth, who would’ve contended for a higher spot on the grid for the race in qualifying, would now start the race in positions not ideal. Day would start 6th, Love in 9th, and Caruth in 13th.

While Caruth is still not a big factor in the championship race, both Love and Day are in crucial places on the table. Love stands in third position with a deficit of 146 points from the top and Day is in fourth with a deficit of 166 points. However, Sheldon Creed who is second in points, and Justin Allgaier, who is the points leader, would be starting Saturday’s race in 4th and 3rd place respectively.

But the only odd-one-out in the top 10 of the starting lineup would be William Byron, who has only appeared in one O’Reilly race at Kansas in the past. The #24 Cup driver finished fourth in the 2017 race when he was a series regular. However, he has never won at Kansas throughout his career so far.

Nevertheless, Byron getting the advantage over series regulars might add to the ongoing debate around Cup drivers racing in lower series.

NASCAR drivers argue for and against Cup drivers racing in O’Reilly and Trucks

During a recent episode of the Happy Hour podcast, NASCAR legend Kevin Harvick made a case for why Cup drivers racing in lower series can help the drivers there.

“That’s how you kept yourself relevant. And that shows that your cars aren’t where they need to be on Sunday because you’re beating the same guys. You’re beating Mark Martin, you’re beating Jeff Burton, you’re beating whoever else is in that race. And as a young driver, you have to have something to show where you are, what that measuring stick is,” Harvick explained.

Harvick’s comments came in the aftermath of Connor Zilisch’s O’Reilly win at Bristol.

Having said that, there’s Kaden Honeycutt, who called out Cup drivers racing in the Truck Series after he missed out on the win at Darlington earlier this season. “When you’ve got nothing to lose… you just do whatever you want,” he had said.

But then there’s Layne Riggs, who argued in favor of Cup driver racing in the Trucks as it brings more attention and eyeballs.

“I like it because I think it gives us more attention in the Truck Series. I think that the win tonight will be a little bit more respected by the average fan. The negative side to it is that they’re not racing for points,” he said.

Therefore, it can be concluded that Cup drivers racing in the lower series remains a divisive topic. So it’d be interesting to see which side of the argument William Byron’s qualifying position and his finish on Saturday ends up adding to.