Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 will be led to the green flag by Christopher Bell at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.
Bell topped the speed charts with a fastest lap of 29.065, only 0.026 seconds faster than teammate Denny Hamlin in second.
For Bell, it was his third pole in the last eight races aboard the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
“It definitely feels good. Darlington is a place that’s notoriously hard to pass, so starting up front is a really big deal,” Bell said. “But, with that being said, it’s an extremely long race. The Southern 500 is in my opinion probably harder than the Coca-Cola 600 just because of the race track that we’re at.
“Very long time tomorrow so starting position has no indication of where we’re going to finish, but we certainly have the speed to compete and hopefully we can keep it up front all day.”
Behind the JGR duo, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick qualified third. He’ll be joined on row two by Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney in fourth.
“That’s not a bad starting spot. It’s nice to start in the top five and starting fourth,” Blaney said. “That’s really good. I’m proud of the effort today and now it’s just a matter of staying in it. Five hundred miles is a long race. It’s a super long race and you can make mistakes real easy, so it’s just a matter of focusing in on tomorrow. It was a good effort today we just have to keep improving.”
A pair for Fords make up row three in Brad Keselowski (fifth) and defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano (sixth).
Ford made up the rest of the top 10 with Kevin Harvick, Chris Buescher, Michael McDowell and Aric Almirola qualifying seventh through tenth, respectively.
No Chevrolet driver made it to the final round of qualifying at the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval. It’s the first time in 41 years (1982) that a Chevy-powered entry hasn’t qualified within the top 10 in the Cup Series.
The highest qualified Chevy driver was Kyle Busch in 11th place. The Richard Childress Racing driver is gunning for his fourth win of the season aboard the No. 8.
2021 Cup Series champion Kyle Larson starts 18th in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Larson’s teammate William Byron qualified 23rd.
After locking into the postseason last week at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway, Bubba Wallace struggled in qualifying, slotting his No. 23 Toyota in 19th.
Entering his second playoff appearance this season, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will start 25th.
During round one, Martin Truex Jr. got loose between turns one and two, forcing the regular season champion to check up during his qualifying run. With the mistake, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver will start deep in the field in 31st.
Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain will also start near the rear of the field in 27th.