NASCAR starting lineup for Darlington Raceway
It’s almost here. The restart of the NASCAR Cup Series is set to take place this weekend. It begins this Sunday via the Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway.
View the full 2020 Darlington Raceway starting lineup below.
Darlington Menu: NCS
Info/TV | May 17 Lineup | May 17 Race | May 20 Lineup | May 20 Race
A random Darlington draw has set the starting lineup for this weekend.
Darlington Raceway will host the reopening of the 2020 racing season. The track is a 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval in Darlington, South Carolina.
Race length: They’ll run 293 laps on Sunday. Stage 1 ends on lap 90 and stage two ends on lap 185.
Front Row: Brad Keselowski will start from the pole position. NASCAR officials drew the number one pill for him on Thursday night. Alex Bowman will complete the front row.
Matt Kenseth will return to the sport following several years of retirement. He’ll pilot the number 42 as Kyle Larson was fired over the break.
Ryan Newman was injured in a wild Daytona crash. He’s been out of the car nursing a brain injury since February. He’ll return this weekend in Darlington.
NASCAR has not touched the track since March 8th, 2020. The season was paused on race four, five if you count the Daytona Duels.
Earlier today, the series announced the schedule for May 30-June 21st. It includes five more tracks.
Related: NASCAR schedule released (May 30-June 21, 2020)
Unique rules for Darlington Raceway
View the NASCAR starting lineup below.
This weekend, they’ll drop the green flag and drivers will see turn one for the first time. No practice or qualifying sessions will take place ahead of the race.
However, they still need to line them up before they get there. On Thursday evening, NASCAR officials drew numbers for May 17th starting positions on live television. That was conducted at the NASCAR R&D Center via a bingo type, ping pong ball drop.
Positions 1-12 in owner points will be in their own group of random draw. They will set the front 12 positions in the race, based on the number drawn.
Positions 13-24 in owner points will draw for positions 13-24 on the grid at Darlington. They must be charter teams.
Positions 25-36 in owner points will draw for positions 25-36 on the grid at Darlington. They must be charter teams.
Positions 37-40 will be reserved for a random draw between non-charter teams.
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Teams will chose pit stalls strictly on owner points. Number one picks first, number 40 picks last.
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A competition caution will drop on lap 30. Teams will be allowed to come down pit road twice during this caution period. They will not lose positions, as long as they beat the pace car to the pit lane.
This gives teams extra time to make setup changes on pit road. This is a result of no practice for the event. The field is essentially frozen at the drop of the first yellow flag.
Darlington Raceway
Starting Lineup
May 17, 2020
NASCAR Cup Series
This is the official starting grid for Darlington Raceway:
Pos | Driver
Draw Group A (1-12)
1. Brad Keselowski
2. Alex Bowman
3. Matt DiBenedetto
4. Kyle Busch
5. Aric Almirola
6. Kevin Harvick
7. Ryan Blaney
8. Jimmie Johnson
9. Joey Logano
10. Denny Hamlin
11. Chase Elliott
12. Matt Kenseth
Draw Group B (13-24)
13. Clint Bowyer
14. Cole Custer
15. Martin Truex Jr
16. Austin Dillon
17. Bubba Wallace
18. William Byron
19. Corey LaJoie
20. Erik Jones
21. Ryan Newman
22. Kurt Busch
23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
24. Chris Buescher
Draw Group C (25-36)
25. Ryan Preece
26. Garrett Smithley
27. Quin Houff
28. Christopher Bell
29. Tyler Reddick
30. JJ Yeley
31. Michael McDowell
32. Joey Gase
33. Ty Dillon
34. John Hunter Nemechek
35. Brennan Poole
36. Reed Sorenson
Draw Group D (37-40)
37. PENDING
