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The NASCAR Cup Series will head to South Carolina this weekend for the 2021 Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Speedway. The race is scheduled for Sunday at 6:00 p.m. ET. It will be televised on NBC Sports Network and streamed on NBCSports.com/live.
This weekend’s race is apart of the Round of 16 for NASCAR’s Cup Series Playoffs. Last year, Kevin Harvick won the Cook Out Southern 500 as he led for 32 out of the 367 laps. Harvick enters Sunday’s race with the sixth-best odds to win it at +1000, according to DraftKings Sportsbook.
Kyle Larson has the best odds to win the 500 this weekend at +300 and was the top driver during the NASCAR season. Ryan Blaney comes into Sunday’s playoff race as the pole leader with +2000 odds. Additionally, the first 16 drivers in the starting lineup are in the playoff.
The lineup was determined with a performance-metric formula instead of traditional qualifying. The metric is split into 25 percent from a driver’s previous race finishing position, 25 percent from the car owner’s previous race finishing position, 35 percent comes from the team owner’s points ranking, and 15 percent comes from the previous race fastest lap.
Here is the full lineup for Sunday’s 2021 Cook Out Southern 500 at the Darlington Raceway.
2021 Cook Out Southern 500, full starting grid
Pos. | Driver | Car # | Team |
---|---|---|---|
Pos. | Driver | Car # | Team |
1 | Ryan Blaney | 12 | Ford |
2 | Denny Hamlin | 11 | Toyota |
3 | Kurt Busch | 1 | Chevrolet |
4 | Chase Elliott | 9 | Chevrolet |
5 | Alex Bowman | 48 | Chevrolet |
6 | Kyle Larson | 5 | Chevrolet |
7 | Tyler Reddick | 8 | Chevrolet |
8 | Aric Almirola | 10 | Ford |
9 | Kevin Harvick | 4 | Ford |
10 | Martin Truex, Jr. | 19 | Toyota |
11 | Joey Logano | 22 | Ford |
12 | Kyle Busch | 18 | Toyota |
13 | Christopher Bell | 20 | Toyota |
14 | William Byron | 24 | Chevrolet |
15 | Michael McDowell | 34 | Ford |
16 | Brad Keselowski | 2 | Ford |
17 | Bubba Wallace | 23 | Toyota |
18 | Ryan Preece | 37 | Chevrolet |
19 | Ryan Newman | 6 | Ford |
20 | Justin Haley | 77 | Chevrolet |
21 | Austin Dillon | 3 | Chevrolet |
22 | Erik Jones | 43 | Chevrolet |
23 | Ross Chastain | 42 | Chevrolet |
24 | Chase Briscoe | 14 | Ford |
25 | Corey LaJoie | 7 | Chevrolet |
26 | Daniel Suarez | 99 | Chevrolet |
27 | B.J. McLeod | 78 | Ford |
28 | Josh Bilicki | 52 | Ford |
29 | Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. | 47 | Chevrolet |
30 | Matt DiBenedetto | 21 | Ford |
31 | Cole Custer | 41 | Ford |
32 | Anthony Alfredo | 38 | Ford |
33 | Cody Ware | 51 | Chevrolet |
34 | Chris Buescher | 17 | Ford |
35 | Joey Gase | 15 | Chevrolet |
36 | James Davison | 53 | Chevrolet |
37 | Quin Houff | 0 | Chevrolet |