DARLINGTON, S.C. – While a 20th-place finish wasn’t exactly what Ryan Preece was looking for on Sunday during NASCAR’s return to competition at Darlington Raceway, it did result in one big positive.
Preece will start from the pole for Wednesday’s NASCAR Cup Series Toyota 500 at Darlington Raceway. Preece secured the pole thanks to his 20th-place finish and NASCAR’s previously announced plans to invert the top-20 finishers from Sunday’s The Real Heroes 400 to set the lineup for Wednesday’s Toyota 500 at Darlington Raceway.
“Overall, it was a solid day for our Cottonelle Chevy,” Preece said Sunday. “We’ve been in a little bit of a hole to start out the season for reasons we weren’t able to control, but this is a positive step forward. We were able to get some stage points and run towards the front, just had a few pit stops that didn’t go our way. We’re a team and we’re moving forward together. We know we have the speed, just need to put everything together. Starting on the pole this Wednesday is going to be really fun.”
He’ll be joined on the front row by Ty Dillon, who finished 19th on Sunday at Darlington. Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer, Ryan Blaney, Ryan Newman, Matt DiBenedetto, Brad Keselowski, Aric Almirola and Austin Dillon will fill out the top-10 starting positions.
The bottom 20 finishers from Sunday’s race at Darlington will start in the positions in which they finished. The starting positions are assigned to the teams not the drivers, if a team opts to compete in Wednesday’s race with a different driver than they raced with in Sunday’s event, the team will not give up its starting position.
Starting Lineup For NASCAR Cup Series Toyota 500 at Darlington Raceway
1. Ryan Preece
2. Ty Dillon
3. Joey Logano
4. Clint Bowyer
5. Ryan Blaney
6. Ryan Newman
7. Matt DiBenedetto
8. Brad Keselowski
9. Aric Almirola
10. Austin Dillon
11. Matt Kenseth
12. John Hunter Nemechek
13. Erik Jones
14. Tyler Reddick
15. Martin Truex Jr.
16. Denny Hamlin
17. Chase Elliott
18. Kurt Busch
19. Alex Bowman
20. Kevin Harvick
21. Bubba Wallace
22. Cole Custer
23. Michael McDowell
24. Christopher Bell
25. Daniel Suarez
26. Kyle Busch
27. Brennan Poole
28. Gray Gaulding
29. J.J. Yeley
30. Joey Gase
31. Corey LaJoie
32. Chris Buescher
33. Timmy Hill
34. William Byron
35. Quin Houff
36. Garrett Smithley
37. Jimmie Johnson
38. B.J. McLeod
39. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.