Neha Dwivedi, Staff Writer

Tyler Reddick kept the hammer down and came out on top in qualifying, grabbing the pole and edging past teammate Bubba Wallace by 0.124 seconds. It marked his second pole of the season and the 13th of his NASCAR Cup Series career.

Chase Elliott will start from third, sharing the second row with Kyle Larson. Brad Keselowski will line up fifth on the third row alongside Chris Buescher, while Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, and Austin Dillon round out the top 10.

Darlington races have always been slightly different from the rest of the races on the schedule, but this time, the Cup will have a short-track package in play. The track has long had a reputation for wearing down tires, and the new setup will add another level of uncertainty to the test.

With a 3-inch spoiler and a diffuser trimmed back to cut underbody grip, time on the throttle drops, downforce takes a hit of around 20 percent, and power climbs to 750 horsepower, a gain of about 12 percent. Put it all together, and drivers are set to earn every lap the hard way.

After getting a taste of the track in practice and qualifying, Reddick said the talk around the garage had been building for weeks about what this package might bring.

“I feel like the topic, the conversation kind of caught wind, if you will, two weeks ago or so on how tricky it was going to be, coming into here with, with less downforce and more power, and yeah it was super important to have good work back at Airspeed on the simulator for what adjustments we needed to make for that.”

“I think we all were just a little, I don’t know, honestly, uncertain what it was going to look like in practice, and yeah, for us to – we kind of caught the back of the field. They took a long time getting going, so when we were passing cars on one lap, older tires, getting going there in practice, I knew we had to be pretty good. So, yeah, it just seems like the handling really stays with our Xfinity Toyota Camry,” the 23XI driver continued.

Even so, he made it clear that it is still early days in terms of reading how the package will shape the race. From what he has seen so far, tire falloff did not hit the mark many had expected, with wear not biting as much as anticipated.

Keselowski, lining up just behind the front rows, echoed the sense that drivers will have their hands full once the green flag drops.

“I thought it was really smooth. It looks like Chris is qualified right next to me. I felt like I got all it had. We know the cars are gonna be very difficult to drive, and that did not disappoint.”

Blaney admitted he left some time on the table, but still found a way into the top 10, keeping himself in the top 10 heading into the race.

Buescher, who will start alongside Keselowski, pointed to a moment that cost him time but took heart from how the team bounced back.

 “That was a big moment into turn one, but outside of that I got down in three and four and drove it all the way to scared, so that slowed us down there. We had our woes on the day, and that was a great recovery time to miss a little bit of practice time and get rolling. We had good long run speed.”

For now, drivers including Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe are bracing for a race that could break loose at any moment. Both have pointed to the combination of 750 HP, tire wear, and track conditions as factors that could turn the event on its head.

Whether that outlook holds water will come to light on Sunday at 3:00 PM ET, when the field takes the green, and the race runs its course.