Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Alex Bowman will be on the front row when the NASCAR Cup Series takes the green flag for the Alsco Uniforms 500K at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The race is scheduled for an approximate 8 p.m. ET start but inclement weather in the forecast makes postponement a possibility.
The race will be the second-consecutive at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and the starting grid was set based on the finishing order of the first, Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600. An inversion of the top-20 from Sunday’s finish put Byron on the pole for the Alsco Uniforms 500K after he finished 20th in the Coca-Cola 600.
“The track should be pretty consistent to what we experienced during the 600 with that race being largely run at night,” Byron said. “I’m looking forward to being able to build on the setup we had and the foundation we built during the 600. I thought it was a pretty decent starting spot to build off of, and if we make a few minor tweaks, we’ll be even better. I also think starting up front will be a great asset. We saw in the 600 that clean air was so important, so this will be our chance to have it and remain up front, hopefully. I’m really looking forward to it, and I think it’s going to be a really good race based on the racing we’ve seen there the last couple days.”
Meanwhile, Coca-Cola 600 winner Brad Keselowski will start 20th for the Alsco Uniforms 500K.
There is no inversion for drivers in the back half of the Coca-Cola 600 finishing order/Alsco Uniforms 500K starting lineup. Byron and Bowman’s teammate Jimmie Johnson will start the second Charlotte race last. He was credited with a last-place, or 40th-place, finish Sunday, despite taking the checkered flag second to Keselowski, because his car failed post-race inspection.
Johnson’s disqualification in the Coca-Cola 600 moved teammate Chase Elliott to the runner-up finish Sunday. As a result, he’ll share the 10th row with Keselowski by starting 19th.
“The last two weeks have been really tough,” Elliott said. “I feel like we have put ourselves in really good positions as a team. We’ve made good decisions, and we’ve made good adjustments on the cars throughout these races. Those are things you don’t always get right. I think that’s what is frustrating to me; it’s a hard thing to make all the right moves, the right decisions and get the car driving exactly like you want it. When you have those days, those type of runs and those type of cars, you want to make the most of it. I think that’s where the frustration is the worst for me, knowing that stuff isn’t forever. It’s not something you get right all the time. We’ve had two opportunities get away. I think that’s the hard thing to swallow. The silver lining is we’ve been running well, and that’s encouraging. We’ve just got to keep doing it. It’s still early in the season.”
Michael McDowell and Matt DiBenedetto will line up in the second row for the Alsco Uniforms 500K, and John Hunder Nemechek and Matt DiBenedetto in the third row. The top-nine starters all are from the Chevrolet or Ford camps with Austin Dillon in seventh, Joey Logano in eighth and Cole Custer ninth. Erik Jones in 10th will be the highest-starting Toyota driver.
