After a 20th-place finish in Saturday’s Drydene 311 at Dover International Speedway, the first race of a NASCAR Cup Series doubleheader, Matt DiBenedetto will start the second Drydene 311 on the pole Sunday.
“With it being a short race and no yellow flags, we were kind of stuck with what we had,” Wood Brothers Racing co-owner Eddie Wood said of Saturday’s race finish. “The good thing is they can work on the car before tomorrow’s race and we’ll get another chance to try to gain some points going into Daytona, where anything can happen.”
The top-20 finishing positions from Saturday’s race were inverted to determine the top-20 starters for Sunday’s race. As a result, Saturday’s 19th-place finisher, Ryan Newman, will start next to DiBenedetto on the front row Sunday.
The same inversion puts the Joe Gibbs trio of Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch in the back three positions of the top-20 for the start of Sunday’s race. Hamlin won Saturday’s Drydene 311, his first-career win at Dover, so he’ll start 20th Sunday.
“This has been a difficult track for me throughout the course of my career, but it’s not because I dislike the track. I’ve just never had the technique that’s been very good here,” Hamlin said after Saturday’s win, his sixth victory of 2020. “It really rewards you charging the corners, and that’s not really my style of driving. I adapt and this is the results we get.”
Truex will start next to Hamlin in row 10, in the 19th position, Sunday after taking runner-up honors to his teammate Saturday. Busch will start 18th.
“Thanks to Interstate Batteries, M&Ms; it’s good to get a solid top-three,” Busch said Saturday. “Hopefully, we can make a few changes tonight. We were close. We had some speed so try to work on it.”
Meanwhile, the inversion puts Ty Dillon and Aric Almirola in row two of Sunday’s starting grid, with Chris Buewscher and Austin Dillon in row three.
“We had good speed in our Smithfield Ford Mustang today,” Almirola said of his 17th-place finish Saturday. “A loose wheel put us behind, and, without any cautions in the last stage, we had no way to get back on the lead lap. I think we could have been contenders today, but we’ll get back to it tomorrow with a good car and hope for a clean day.”
Other top-10 starters Sunday include Ryan Blaney in seventh, Tyler Reddick in eighth, Erik Jones ninth and Cole Custer in 10th.
Beyond the top-20, drivers will start in the same positions Sunday that they finished Saturday. Alex Bowman will start 21st Sunday after failing to get by DiBenedetto for a top-20 finish Saturday.
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