Weather forced the cancellation of practice and qualifying on Saturday at Darlington Raceway, putting Tyler Reddick on the pole for Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) as the lineup was set in accordance with the NASCAR Rule Book.
This was the sixth time qualifying was canceled this season, according to Racing Insights, and the sixth time qualifying was not held for the Southern 500. That means the 16 drivers in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 will enter the first of 10 postseason races without any practice or qualifying laps at Darlington.
“No, it’s literally best-case scenario for us,” Reddick said when asked if he would’ve liked to get some laps in on Saturday. “We were so strong here last spring. Ironically enough, as I kind of got going in Cup racing, it was during COVID, and there was no practice at all, and I kind of got very used to just having to figure it out the first corner, and so for me, in general, I feel within a really good spot most weekends when this happens.”
RELATED: Cup Series standings | Darlington weekend schedule
With the lineup instead determined by NASCAR’s performance metric, results from the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway carried significant weight into the Chase opener. The metric is weighted 70% toward a car’s finish in the previous race and 30% toward its position in the owner standings.
As a result, several Chase contenders who ran into trouble at Daytona will begin Sunday deeper in the field. Carson Hocevar and Chris Buescher, both involved in incidents in the regular-season finale, will start 34th and 35th, respectively.
Reddick, who won five of the season’s first nine races but has struggled of late, will start from the pole position with fellow Chase driver Daniel Suárez alongside him on the front row. Chase drivers Ryan Preece and Denny Hamlin will make up the second row.
| Position | Car | Driver |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 45 | Tyler Reddick (C) |
| 2 | 7 | Daniel Suárez (C) |
| 3 | 60 | Ryan Preece (C) |
| 4 | 11 | Denny Hamlin (C) |
| 5 | 71 | Michael McDowell |
| 6 | 2 | Austin Cindric (C) |
| 7 | 19 | Chase Briscoe (C) |
| 8 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
| 9 | 3 | Austin Dillon |
| 10 | 48 | Alex Bowman |
| 11 | 20 | Christopher Bell (C) |
| 12 | 6 | Brad Keselowski |
| 13 | 22 | Joey Logano (C) |
| 14 | 21 | Josh Berry |
| 15 | 35 | Riley Herbst |
| 16 | 41 | Cole Custer |
| 17 | 23 | Bubba Wallace (C) |
| 18 | 9 | Chase Elliott (C) |
| 19 | 42 | John Hunter Nemechek |
| 20 | 24 | William Byron (C) |
| 21 | 34 | Todd Gilliland |
| 22 | 67 | Corey Heim (i) |
| 23 | 1 | Ross Chastain |
| 24 | 12 | Ryan Blaney (C) |
| 25 | 5 | Kyle Larson (C) |
| 26 | 97 | Shane van Gisbergen |
| 27 | 10 | Ty Dillon |
| 28 | 54 | Ty Gibbs (C) |
| 29 | 4 | Noah Gragson |
| 30 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger |
| 31 | 88 | Connor Zilisch # |
| 32 | 33 | Austin Hill (i) |
| 33 | 38 | Zane Smith |
| 34 | 77 | Carson Hocevar (C) |
| 35 | 17 | Chris Buescher (C) |
| 36 | 43 | Erik Jones |
| 37 | 51 | Cody Ware |
| 38 | 66 | Chad Finchum (i) |
(C) = Chase driver
(i) = Ineligible for points in this series
# = Rookie