Brad Keselowski draws pole for the NASCAR’s Real Heroes 400 in Darlington

Brad Keselowski locked in a pole start without touching the track for NASCAR’s return race at Darlington this Sunday. Alex Bowman will also start in the front row by way of a random draw that took place Thursday evening on FS1 to set the starting lineup.

Matt DiBenedetto, Kyle Busch, Aric Almirola and Kevin Harvick will round out the top six on the starting grid. The Real Heroes 400 race, named to recognize the medical professionals who are serving on the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic, will feature 40 Cup drivers competing on the 1.366-mile oval at Darlington Raceway.

Those 40 drivers are also honoring healthcare workers leading up to the race and during the event as part of the Real Heroes Project, a collaborative initiative by 14 sports leagues including NASCAR to pay tribute to healthcare workers battling the pandemic. Each driver’s name will be replaced above the driver-side window with the name of an individual healthcare worker selected by NASCAR and FOX Sports.

Because NASCAR is not running qualifying and practice laps for the sport’s first return races in order to limit the amount of in-person interaction at the track, the sanctioning body set the starting lineup for Sunday’s race by random selection.

Matt Kenseth will start 12th, while Ryan Newman will start 21st. Kenseth is returning to racing after a yearlong retirement driving the No. 42 car for Chip Ganassi Racing in place of Kyle Larson, who was fired by his team for using a racial slur last month. Newman, who drives the No. 6 car for Roush Fenway Racing, missed three races before the season was postponed due to a head injury he suffered during a last-lap crash at the Daytona 500.

“I think you’ll run those first 30 laps and then you get that kind of extended caution there to be able to kind of make some small adjustments and go from there,” Kenseth said.

Kenseth’s CGR teammate Kurt Busch said he also anticipates easing into the race. He recommended that other drivers do the same since no one has been allowed to practice on the track since the official season was postponed two months ago due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Busch said his approach is to drive at an “80 percent level” and then “start to ramp up our percentage of aggressiveness as the race moves forward.”

Busch will start in the 11th row alongside Newman in 22nd place.

The 36 drivers with official Cup Series Charters were entered into the random draw on Thursday. The four drivers without Charters — Daniel Suárez, Timmy Hill, Josh Bilicki and B.J. McLeod — will start at the rear of the field.

Harvick currently leads the series with 164 points. He is closely followed by Joey Logano, who has 163 points, and Chase Elliott with 144 points. Logano will start ninth, while Elliott will start 11th. Logano won two of the four races (at Las Vegas and Phoenix) NASCAR completed before the season was postponed in March.

Alexandra Andrejev

The Charlotte Observer

NASCAR and Charlotte FC beat reporter Alex Andrejev joined The Observer in January 2020 following an internship at The Washington Post. She is a two-time APSE award winner for her NASCAR beat coverage and National Motorsports Press Association award winner. She is the host of McClatchy’s podcast “Payback” about women’s soccer. Support my work with a digital subscription