Weather cancels Talladega qualifying

Severe weather alerts have been issued for the area and officials have decided to cancel Sprint Cup series qualifying for safety reasons and to postpone the Nationwide Series race for Sunday afternoon.

The field for Sunday's 499-mile race, which is set to start at the original scheduled time, will be set, as per NASCAR rules, according to the owners' standings, handing pole position to Jimmie Johnson.

"In the interest of fan safety, all activities scheduled at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday have been postponed due to the significant threat of extended periods of severe weather," said a release from Talladega Superspeedway officials.

"This decision was made based on advice from the National Weather Service and the Talladega County Emergency Management Agency."

The Nationwide Series race will be run following the Cup event, with at least 11 drivers taking part in both and set for 811 miles of racing in one day.

Given the cancellation of qualifying, Terry Cook and Aric Almirola were left out of the Cup field.

Weather forecasts for Sunday look good, with partly skies expected and only a 20 per cent chance of rain.

Starting line-up:

Pos  Driver                Car
 1.  Jimmie Johnson        Chevrolet
 2.  Matt Kenseth          Ford
 3.  Greg Biffle           Ford
 4.  Kevin Harvick         Chevrolet
 5.  Jeff Gordon           Chevrolet
 6.  Kyle Busch            Toyota
 7.  Dale Earnhardt Jr     Chevrolet
 8.  Jeff Burton           Chevrolet
 9.  Kurt Busch            Dodge
10.  Mark Martin           Chevrolet
11.  Denny Hamlin          Toyota
12.  Joey Logano           Toyota
13.  Tony Stewart          Chevrolet
14.  Clint Bowyer          Chevrolet
15.  Carl Edwards          Ford
16.  Ryan Newman           Chevrolet
17.  Martin Truex Jr       Toyota
18.  Paul Menard           Ford
19.  Brian Vickers         Toyota
20.  Scott Speed           Toyota
21.  Jamie McMurray        Chevrolet
22.  Kasey Kahne           Ford
23.  AJ Allmendinger       Ford
24.  Juan Pablo Montoya    Chevrolet
25.  Brad Keselowski       Dodge
26.  David Ragan           Ford
27.  Elliott Sadler        Ford
28.  Marcos Ambrose        Toyota
29.  Sam Hornish Jr        Dodge
30.  David Reutimann       Toyota
31.  Regan Smith           Chevrolet
32.  Bobby Labonte         Chevrolet
33.  Kevin Conway          Ford
34.  Travis Kvapil         Ford
35.  Robert Richardson Jr  Ford
36.  David Stremme         Ford
37.  Mike Bliss            Chevrolet
38.  Robby Gordon          Toyota
39.  Johnny Sauter         Chevrolet
40.  Max Papis             Toyota
41.  Joe Nemechek          Toyota
42.  Dave Blaney           Toyota
43.  Michael Waltrip       Toyota

Non-qualifiers:

     Terry Cook            Dodge
     Aric Almirola         Chevrolet