Spire Motorsports' Carson Hocevar originally qualified 16th for Sunday's Goodyear 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway, but the No. 77 Chevrolet is set to drop to the rear of the field after the team made a control arm change.
Hocevar is set to drop to the tail end of the outside lane, placing him 36th in the 37-car field, before the green flag flies to get the 293-lap race around the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) egg-shaped Darlington, South Carolina oval underway.
As a result, every driver who had been slated to begin behind Hocevar on the outside lane is set to move up one row (two spots), beginning with Hyak Motorsports' Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who is set to move up from 18th to 16th place. Nobody slated to start the race on the inside lane will move up as a result of Hocevar's pre-race penalty.
Here's a look at the updated starting lineup for the Goodyear 400 at Darlington, following Hocevar's penalty.
Add us as a preferred source on GoogleNASCAR Cup Series starting lineup at Darlington
Order | Driver |
|---|---|
1 | Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota |
2 | Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota |
3 | Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
4 | Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
5 | Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford |
6 | Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford |
7 | Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford |
8 | Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet |
9 | Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
10 | Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet |
11 | Daniel Suarez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
12 | Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford |
13 | William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
14 | Riley Herbst, No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota |
15 | Justin Allgaier, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
16 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet |
17 | Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford |
18 | Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
19 | Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
20 | Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
21 | John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota |
22 | Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota |
23 | Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
24 | Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford |
25 | Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
26 | Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
27 | A.J. Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet |
28 | Noah Gragson, No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
29 | Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford |
30 | Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
31 | Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
32 | Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet |
33 | Shane van Gisbergen, No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
34 | Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet |
35 | Cole Custer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet |
36 | Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
37 | Timmy Hill, No. 66 Garage 66 Ford |
This race is set to be the first Cup Series race at Darlington in which the new 750-horsepower package is used. That package made its debut at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) road course three weekends ago, and it made its oval debut at the four-turn, 1.022-mile (1.645-kilometer) Phoenix Raceway one weekend later. Given some of the positive signs, don't be surprised to see Hocevar make his way to the front.
This package is in line to be used at all road and street courses and all ovals which measure less than 1.5 miles in length, meaning that this weekend's race is set to mark the first of three consecutive appearances.
The four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) Martinsville Speedway oval and the four-turn, 0.533-mile (0.858-kilometer) Bristol Motor Speedway are scheduled to host the next two events after this weekend's Darlington race on Sunday, March 29 and Sunday, April 12, respectively. The Cup Series is scheduled to have off for Easter for the second consecutive season.
Fox Sports 1 is set to provide live coverage of the Goodyear 400 from Darlington Raceway beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET this afternoon, with pre-race coverage of NASCAR RaceDay also on FS1. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and catch all of the action from the "Lady in Black"!