Image by Rusty Jarrett/Motorsport Images
Keselowski draws pole for Bristol
A random draw set the starting field for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway and Team Penske driver Brad Keselowski will start from the pole.
The starting line-up was determined Friday afternoon. As NASCAR officials did for the first Darlington Raceway race, the draw was done in groups of 12 with positions 1-12 drawn for charter teams in those positions in owner points, the same for positions 13-24 and 25-36. Positions 37-40 were filled out by open teams in order of owner points.
Keselowski was the first of four Ford drivers to draw the top starting positions. Joining him on the front row will be Aric Almirola. Keselowski has two wins at Bristol.
Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney will start third and fourth. Martin Truex Jr. completes the top five.
The rest of the top 10 are Chase Elliott starting sixth, Kyle Busch starting seventh, Kevin Harvick eighth, Matt DiBenedetto ninth, and Denny Hamlin 10th.
Busch, an eight-time winner at Bristol, won the spring race at the half-mile last year. Hamlin won the summer race in a memorable run to the finish with DiBenedetto finishing second.
Rounding the top 15 will be Alex Bowman, Kurt Busch, William Byron, Matt Kenseth, and Erik Jones. Jimmie Johnson will start 24th.
The Supermarket Heroes 400 will be Sunday, May 31, at 3:30 p.m. ET and air on FS1. Bristol's Xfinity Series race, originally scheduled for Saturday, was pushed back to Monday night (7 p.m., FS1) for logistical reasons following rescheduling of rained-out races earlier this week at Charlotte.
Kelly Crandall
Kelly has been on the NASCAR beat full-time since 2013, and joined RACER as chief NASCAR writer in 2017. Her work has also appeared in NASCAR.com, the NASCAR Illustrated magazine, and NBC Sports. A corporate communications graduate from Central Penn College, Crandall is a two-time George Cunningham Writer of the Year recipient from the National Motorsports Press Association.
Read Kelly Crandall's articles
Latest News
Comments
Comments are disabled until you accept Social Networking Cookies. Update cookie preferences
If the dialog doesn't appear, ad-blockers are often the cause; try disabling yours or see our Social Features Support.