Denny Hamlin took the pole position for Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway with a lap time of 28.694 seconds (171.381 mph) in Saturday’s qualifying session around the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval.
Hamlin, who holds five career wins at Darlington (most among active drivers), won the Spring race at Darlington Raceway earlier this year.
Hamlin led a charge of 12 Playoff drivers, who swept the top of the qualifying results on Saturday morning. Chase Briscoe, Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, will start from the outside of the front row on Sunday.
Playoff drivers (qualifying position in parenthesis): Hamlin (1st), Briscoe (2nd), Josh Berry (3rd), Tyler Reddick (4th), Kyle Larson (5th), Ross Chastain (6th), Christopher Bell (7th), Bubba Wallace (8th), Austin Dillon (9th), Austin Cindric (10th), William Byron (11th), Ryan Blaney (12th), Joey Logano (14th), Shane van Gisbergen (20th), Chase Elliott (21st), and Alex Bowman (29th).
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Cody Ware, who had a solid effort at Daytona last weekend, slapped the wall during his qualifying run, which resulted in a subpar 36th-place qualifying effort.
Here is the official starting lineup for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Race 27 of 36.
Pos
Car
Driver
Lap time
Speed
1
11
Denny Hamlin (P)
28.694
171.381
2
19
Chase Briscoe (P)
28.715
171.255
3
21
Josh Berry (P)
28.829
170.578
4
45*
Tyler Reddick (P)
28.848
170.466
5
5
Kyle Larson (P)
28.925
170.012
6
1
Ross Chastain (P)
28.933
169.965
7
20
Christopher Bell (P)
28.962
169.795
8
23*
Bubba Wallace (P)
28.985
169.660
9
3
Austin Dillon (P)
29.004
169.549
10
2
Austin Cindric (P)
29.023
169.438
11
24
William Byron (P)
29.025
169.426
12
12
Ryan Blaney (P)
29.032
169.386
13
7
Justin Haley
29.060
169.222
14
22
Joey Logano (P)
29.080
169.106
15
17
Chris Buescher
29.082
169.094
16
54
Ty Gibbs
29.127
168.833
17
99
Daniel Suarez
29.172
168.573
18
41
Cole Custer
29.196
168.434
19
43
Erik Jones
29.216
168.319
20
88
Shane van Gisbergen (P) #
29.223
168.278
21
9
Chase Elliott (P)
29.226
168.261
22
16
AJ Allmendinger
29.234
168.215
23
8
Kyle Busch
29.235
168.209
24
38*
Zane Smith
29.245
168.152
25
71
Michael McDowell
29.249
168.129
26
77
Carson Hocevar
29.249
168.129
27
60
Ryan Preece
29.254
168.100
28
34*
Todd Gilliland
29.263
168.048
29
48
Alex Bowman (P)
29.269
168.014
30
42
John Hunter Nemechek
29.327
167.682
31
10
Ty Dillon
29.338
167.619
32
6
Brad Keselowski
29.401
167.260
33
35*
Riley Herbst #
29.445
167.010
34
4*
Noah Gragson
29.511
166.636
35
47
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
29.663
165.782
36
51
Cody Ware
29.997
163.936
37
44*
Derek Kraus
30.451
161.492
38
66*
Timmy Hill (i)
31.025
158.504
(P) indicates Playoff driver
# indicates Rookie of the Year contender
* indicates “Open” entry
(i) indiciates a driver ineligible to score points
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