Christopher Bell Wins Darlington Cup Series pole

DARLINGTON, SC — Christopher Bell will lead the Cup Series field to the green flag at Darlington Raceway on Sunday evening (6 p.m. ET on USA Network).

Bell won the pole for the seventh time in his career with a lap of 169.193 mph. This is his third pole win in the past eight races.

Teammate Denny Hamlin will start second with a lap of 169.042 mph. Tyler Reddick will line up third with a lap of 168.972 mph.

MORE: Darlington starting lineup

Ryan Blaney was the top Ford driver with a lap of 168.273 mph. Following Blaney was Brad Keselowski with a lap of 168.227 mph.

Ford drivers rounded out the rest of the top 10 with Joey Logano (168.152 mph), Kevin Harvick (168.129 mph), Chris Buescher (167.962 mph), Michael McDowell (167.893 mph) and Aric Almirola (167.231 mph).

Kyle Busch hit the wall during practice. He qualified 11th with a lap of 169.397 mph as the top Chevrolet driver. Sunday’s race marks the first time since September 1982 that Chevrolet did not have a car qualify inside the top 10.

Carson Hocevar, making his second career Cup start, qualified 15th with a lap of 168.677 mph.

Martin Truex Jr. was the lowest-qualifying playoff driver. He was 31st with a lap of 166.913 mph.

The green flag for Sunday’s race is scheduled to wave at 6:19 p.m. ET on USA Network. Countdown to Green starts at 5:30 p.m. on USA Network. Pre-race coverage continues at 6 p.m. on USA Network.

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