NASCAR: Austin Dillon penalized ahead of Darlington race
By Asher Fair
Austin Dillon is set to drop to the rear of the field ahead of Sunday evening’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener at Darlington Raceway.
Multiple pre-race inspection failures for the #3 Chevrolet ahead of Sunday evening’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff-opening Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway have resulted in Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon being forced to drop to the rear of the field on the pace laps.
Because Dillon was unable to qualify for the playoffs this season, he was not slated to start this 367-lap race around the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) egg-shaped oval in Darlington, South Carolina inside the top 16.
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Based on NASCAR’s starting lineup formula, he had been set to start in 21st place.
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As a result of the penalty, he is set to drop to the tail end of the inside lane and start in 37th (last) place in the 37-car field. All of the other drivers who had been slated to start in an odd position behind Dillon are now set to move up by one row each.
None of the other drivers are slated to drop to the rear of the field before the green flag flies to get the four-round, 10-race postseason underway, as all 36 of the other cars passed pre-race inspection in either the first or second attempt.
Here is the updated starting lineup for the 2021 Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
Starting Lineup
1st – Ryan Blaney
2nd – Denny Hamlin
3rd – Kurt Busch
4th – Chase Elliott
5th – Alex Bowman
6th – Kyle Larson
7th – Tyler Reddick
8th – Aric Almirola
9th – Kevin Harvick
10th – Martin Truex Jr.
11th – Joey Logano
12th – Kyle Busch
13th – Christopher Bell
14th – William Byron
15th – Michael McDowell
16th – Brad Keselowski
17th – Ryan Preece
18th – Ryan Newman
19th – Bubba Wallace
20th – Justin Haley
21st – Ross Chastain
22nd – Erik Jones
23rd – Corey LaJoie
24th – Chase Briscoe
25th – B.J. McLeod
26th – Daniel Suarez
27th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
28th – Josh Bilicki
29th – Cole Custer
30th – Matt DiBenedetto
31st – Cody Ware
32nd – Anthony Alfredo
33rd – Joey Gase
34th – Chris Buescher
35th – Quin Houff
36th – James Davison
37th – Austin Dillon
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Tune in to NBC Sports Network right now for the live broadcast of the Cook Out Southern 500. If you have not yet started your free trial of FuboTV, now would be a great time to do so!