NASCAR lineup at Darlington: Starting order, pole for Sunday's race without qualifying

Tom Gatto

NASCAR lineup at Darlington: Starting order, pole for Sunday's race without qualifying image

The starting lineup for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway was set by applying the statistical formula NASCAR is using for the majority of its 2021 races.

Drivers' starting positions for the Goodyear 400 (3:30 p.m. ET; FS1, TSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) were based on four factors:

  • Driver's finishing position from the previous race (25 percent)
  • Car owner's finishing position from the previous race (25 percent)
  • Team owner points ranking (35 percent)
  • Fastest lap from the previous race (15 percent)

NASCAR is conducting qualifying and practice for just eight Cup Series races in the 2021 season. The next session will take place just prior to the May 23 event at Circuit of the Americas, a road course outside Austin, Texas.

Below is the starting lineup, which was set without qualifying, for Sunday's NASCAR race on Darlington's 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval.

MORE: Watch Sunday's NASCAR race live with fuboTV (free 7-day trial)

Who won the pole for the NASCAR race at Darlington?

NASCAR's formula came up with Brad Keselowski being on the pole at Darlington. Keselowski was also the polesitter for last weekend's race, the Buschy McBusch Race 400 at Kansas. He is sixth in the Cup Series point standings but has a win (Talladega) and a third-place finish (Kansas) in his last two races.

Kevin Harvick was tapped to start beside Keselowski on the front row. Harvick won two of the three races at Darlington last year and finished third in the other one. Like Keselowski, he's coming off back-to-back top-fives: fourth at Talladega and second at Kansas.

Kyle Busch, last weekend's winner, was placed in the third spot for Sunday's race. Martin Truex Jr., William Byron, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Matt DiBenedetto, Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick round out the top 10.

NASCAR starting lineup at Darlington

The starting lineup for Sunday's race at Darlington Raceway, aka the track Too Tough to Tame, aka the Lady in Black, was determined through a mathematical formula, which produced this starting lineup for the Goodyear 400 without qualifying:

Start pos. Driver Car No. Team
1 Brad Keselowski 2 Team Penske
2 Kevin Harvick 4 Stewart-Haas Racing
3 Kyle Busch 18 Joe Gibbs Racing
4 Martin Truex Jr. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing
5 William Byron 24 Hendrick Motorsports
6 Chase Elliott 9 Hendrick Motorsports
7 Denny Hamlin 11 Joe Gibbs Racing
8 Matt DiBenedetto 21 Wood Brothers Racing
9 Austin Dillon 3 Richard Childress Racing
10 Tyler Reddick 8 Richard Childress Racing
11 Chris Buescher 17 Roush Fenway Racing
12 Joey Logano 22 Team Penske
13 Michael McDowell 34 Front Row Motorsports
14 Kyle Larson 5 Hendrick Motorsports
15 Daniel Suarez 99 Trackhouse Racing Team
16 Ryan Blaney 12 Team Penske
17 Kurt Busch 1 Chip Ganassi Racing
18 Ross Chastain 42 Chip Ganassi Racing
19 Alex Bowman 48 Hendrick Motorsports
20 Ryan Newman 6 Roush Fenway Racing
21 Christopher Bell 20 Joe Gibbs Racing
22 Chase Briscoe 14 Stewart-Haas Racing
23 Bubba Wallace 23 23XI Racing
24 Cole Custer 41 Stewart-Haas Racing
25 Anthony Alfredo 38 Front Row Motorsports
26 Erik Jones 43 Richard Petty Motorsports
27 Aric Almirola 10 Stewart-Haas Racing
28 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing
29 Ryan Preece 37 JTG Daugherty Racing
30 Corey LaJoie 7 Spire Motorsports
31 Justin Haley 77 Spire Motorsports
32 BJ McLeod 78 Live Fast Motorsports
33 Cody Ware 51 Petty Ware Racing
34 JJ Yeley 53 Rick Ware Racing
35 Quin Houff 00 StarCom Racing
36 James Davison 15 Rick Ware Racing
37 Josh Bilicki 52 Rick Ware Racing

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.