NASCAR starting lineup: Christopher Bell claims pole in qualifying for Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington

Final qualifying results: Christopher Bell claimed pole position for Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500. Denny Hamlin will join him on the front row. The full starting lineup is listed below.

Qualifying round 1, group B results: Tyler Reddick was the fastest Group B qualifier in the first round at Darlington. Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, and Chris Buescher rounded out the top five in the group and will advance to the second round.

Qualifying round 1, group A results: Christopher Bell was the fastest Group A qualifier in the first round at Darlington. Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Aric Almirola, and Michael McDowell all will join him in the second round as the five fastest qualifiers.

The NASCAR Cup Series opens the 2023 playoffs this weekend at Darlington with the Cook Out Southern 500. The race is scheduled for Sunday, but qualifying will take place a day prior starting at 1:20 p.m. ET on USA.

Qualifying will last a little over an hour, running two rounds for the field of drivers. The first round will see the field split in half with each group running single-car, one lap qualifying. The top five in each group will advance to the second round where those ten drivers will get one more lap to secure pole position.

Martin Truex, Jr. claimed the regular season points title and heads into qualifying as the favorite to win the first race of the playoffs. He is installed at DraftKings Sportsbook with +500 odds to win. Kyle Larson follows at +600, and William Byron and Denny Hamlin are each +600. Defending race champ Erik Jones is +2800 to repeat.

Here is the full entry list for the Cook Out Southern 500 Cup Series race. We’ll update it with the full starting lineup as qualifying wraps.