Rain hands Stewart Bristol pole.

The Nextel Cup Series suffered its second washout in six days on Friday as persistent rain forced Bud Pole qualifying for Sunday's Food City 500 at the Bristol Motor Speedway to be cancelled.

Drivers couldn't get onto the half-mile Bristol bullring at all on Friday, forcing NASCAR to set the starting grid for Sunday's race via the NASCAR rulebook which, at this point in the season, calls for the top 35 positions to be decided by 2005 owner points and positions 36-43 to be set by current 2006 owner points.

From next weekend onwards, 2006 owner points will be used to decide the entire line-up in the event of any subsequent washouts.

Defending Nextel Cup Champion Tony Stewart and last year's title runner-up Greg Biffle will start from the front row of the grid on Sunday as a result of the inclement weather with Biffle's Roush Racing teammates Carl Edwards and Mark Martin sharing the second row.

The two drivers who won last season at Bristol, Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth will start 14th and 7th respectively while Ganassi Racing's Reed Sorensen will be the highest starting rookie in 24th.

In some respects Friday's rain helped many of the teams fighting for a place in the top 35 in owner points with just one race remaining before NASCAR starts to use the current points to decide guaranteed grid slots.

Terry Labonte, Robby Gordon and Scott Riggs, who are all trying desperately to keep their teams inside the top 35, will start with a fighting chance of staying among the elite with 36th, 37th and 38th places on the grid while Kevin Lepage and Scott Wimmer, whose teams are on the brink of making it into the top 35, also make it onto the grid in 39th and 40th places.

Travis Kvapil, Hermie Sadler and Stanton Barrett will also race on Sunday, although Kenny Wallace, Mike Garvey, Mike Skinner, Derrike Cope, Morgan Shepherd, Chad Blount and Chad Chaffin will go home early.