Blaney on pole for playoff opener, Darlington lineup

With two wins to finish out the regular season, Ryan Blaney has earned the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener at Darlington Raceway.

Joining Blaney on the front row will be Denny Hamlin. Playoff drivers make up the first 16 drivers in the field for the Cook Out Southern 500 with regular season champion Kyle Larson slated to roll off sixth. Bubba Wallace is the first non-playoff driver thanks largely to a second place finish at Daytona last weekend.

The Cook Out Southern 500 will air on NBCSN and MRN beginning at 6 pm ET on Sunday. In total the race is 501.3 miles with stage breaks scheduled on laps 115 and 230 before the race ends on lap 367.

Darlington Cup Series Lineup

1. Ryan Blaney
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Kurt Busch
4. Chase Elliott
5. Alex Bowman
6. Kyle Larson
7. Tyler Reddick
8. Aric Almirola
9. Kevin Harvick
10. Martin Truex Jr.
11. Joey Logano
12. Kyle Busch
13. Christopher Bell
14. William Byron
15. Michael McDowell
16. Brad Keselowski
17. Bubba Wallace
18. Ryan Preece
19. Ryan Newman
20. Justin Haley
21. Austin Dillon
22. Erik Jones
23. Ross Chastain
24. Chase Briscoe
25. Corey LaJoie
26. Daniel Suarez
27. BJ McLeod
28. Josh Bilicki
29. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
30. Matt DiBenedetto
31. Cole Custer
32. Anthony Alfredo
33. Cody Ware
34. Chris Buescher
35. Joey Gase
36. James Davison
37. Quin Houff