Bubba Wallace gave himself some much needed momentum heading into his final shot to get above the playoff cut line.
Wallace claimed the NASCAR Cup Series pole for the Cook Out Southern 500 on Saturday (Aug. 31) at Darlington Raceway with a lap time of 167.146 mph.
Rookie Carson Hocevar will roll off second. It’s the best start of his young Cup career.
Chase Briscoe will start third alongside the defending Southern 500 winner Kyle Larson. Martin Truex Jr. and regular season points leader Tyler Reddick will make up row three.
Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Christopher Bell and Chris Buescher round out the top-10 starters.
Kyle Busch, needing a win to get into the playoffs, qualified 17th. Ross Chastain, another driver right below the cut line, qualified 22nd.
37 cars were entered for 40 spots, therefore nobody failed to qualify for the race.
Cook Out Southern 500 Starting Lineup
The 2024 Cook Out Southern 500 will go green Sunday (Sept. 1) at 6 p.m. ET with live coverage on USA Network and the Motor Racing Network.
James Krause joined Frontstretch in March 2024 as a contributor. Krause was born and raised in Illinois and graduated from Northern Illinois University. He currently works in La Crosse, Wisconsin as a local sports reporter, including local short track racing. Outside of racing, Krause loves to keep up with football, music, anime and video games.
Good for him. Restarts are going to play a huge part in this race. Can his shrink handle his nerves!
Should his car have passed inspection?
What do you know that we don’t Don?
Your question is the one I have been asking myself about all year. Reddick is a very good racer and wheel man. Are Gibbs cars that good!! But 23xi and Denny himself have me going mmmm all year.
I’m excited for Hocevar!