For just the second time since November 2018, there were more than 40 cars on a NASCAR Cup Series entry list for a race other than the Daytona 500 this weekend at Talladega Superspeeedway.
In addition to the 36 full-time chartered cars, there were five non-chartered (open) cars on the entry list for Sunday afternoon's 188-lap Jack Link's 500 around the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked Lincoln, Alabama oval, but there were only four spots available in the 40-car field, meaning that one would ultimately fail to qualify.
These five cars were the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet for Jesse Love, the No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet for Joey Gase, the No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet for Casey Mears, the No. 66 Garage 66 (MBM Motorsports) Ford for Chad Finchum, and the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet for Daniel Dye.
The slowest of the five in Saturday's single-car qualifying session would ultimately fail to qualify.
However, due to rain, NASCAR decided to cancel qualifying.
As a result, the full 40-car starting lineup was set using the qualifying metric.
Of the five open cars, the only one without any owner points this season is the No. 62 car, after it initially qualified for the Daytona 500 with Anthony Alfredo before NASCAR revoked its spot due to a violation discovered in post-Duel inspection. Until this weekend, it had not been back for a Cup race since.
As a result, Mears will not compete in Sunday's race.
While NASCAR technically could have granted one of the five open entries the Open Exemption provisional, to guarantee a 41-car field like they did for the Daytona 500, a team would have needed to apply for that provisional ahead of time.
Fox's live coverage of the Jack Link's 500 from NASCAR's biggest oval is set to begin at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, April 26. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss it!
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