Christopher Bell won his fourth pole of the season at Darlington Raceway, turning a lap of 169.193 mph. Bell will start on the front row alongside Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin, who ran 169.042 mph.
Toyotas took the top three spots, as Tyler Reddick ran third with a lap of 168.972 mph.
The rest of the top 10 are Fords. Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski fill the fourth and fifth spots.
In the back half of the top 10, Joey Logano qualified sixth, Kevin Harvick sits seventh and Chris Buescher will start eighth. Michael McDowell and Aric Almirola round out the final spots in ninth and 10th, respectively.
After hitting the wall in practice, Kyle Busch drove the fastest lap for a Chevrolet in qualifying, just barely missing the top 10 in 11th. The lack of Chevy presence in the final round was noticeable, meaning a myriad of playoff drivers will start deep in the field.
Kyle Larson qualified 18th with Bubba Wallace just behind in 19th. Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron will start 23rd.
Playoff drivers Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ross Chastain qualified 25th and 27th, and regular season champion Martin Truex Jr. qualified a dismal 31st after a wiggle early in his qualifying lap.
Other notable drivers include Chase Elliott, racing for an owner’s championship, who set the fastest Hendrick lap to start 13th. In just his second career NASCAR Cup Series start, Carson Hocevar will start 15th.
Cup Starting Lineup for Darlington
The NASCAR Playoffs begin with a crown jewel in the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington on Sunday, Sept. 3. Coverage begins at 6:00 p.m. ET on the USA Network.
Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!