NASCAR uses modified random draw to determine Darlington 400 race order

NASCAR returns to action on Sunday, May 17th, marking the first race since suspending the season after the March 9th race at Phoenix Raceway due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Real Heroes 400 will run 293 laps over 400 miles at Darlington Raceway, the first of two Cup Series races in four days at Darlington.

There is no qualifying for the time being, and so a modified random draw is being used to sort out race order. This will eventually change, but for Darlington, four groups of racers were randomly drawn to sort out the starting positions.

Brad Keselowski will start on the pole and Alex Bowman joins him on the front row. Matt DiBenedetto and Kyle Busch line up behind them. B.J. McLeod and Josh Bilicki will be the final row of the race.

The line was determined via live draw, with teams split into four groups. The charter teams ranked 1-12 in team owner points were grouped together and then a random draw took place for the first 12 spots in the lineup. The same was done for charter teams ranked 13-24, and again for charter teams ranked 25-36. The final four spots were filled by open, non-chartered teams in order of owner points.

The race order for Sunday’s Real Heroes 400 is as follows: