Overview
- Saturday’s repeated lightning near Darlington Raceway forced NASCAR to cancel Cup Series practice and single-car qualifying, so officials applied the rulebook metric to set Sunday’s starting lineup.
- Tyler Reddick received the pole for the Cook Out Southern 500 under the metric with Daniel Suárez on the front row and Ryan Preece and Denny Hamlin starting third and fourth.
- The metric moved several championship contenders deep in the field, with Ryan Blaney 24th, Kyle Larson 25th, Carson Hocevar 34th and Chris Buescher 35th, altering their race plans for the Chase opener.
- In support-series action, Carson Kvapil won the O’Reilly Series pole and Sheldon Creed won the Fleetio 200, tightening the O’Reilly Chase points battle heading into the next race.
- The loss of practice data matters at Darlington because its abrasive, asymmetrical surface magnifies the value of track position and tire management, and the new 10-race Chase format’s reseed makes each opening result especially consequential.