NASCAR hit it out of the park on Sunday at the Darlington Raceway. Despite having no races since March 8 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, NASCAR formulated a plan and executed it to perfection.

The races that we saw prior to Sunday looked a lot different than we have now. There’s no fans, no practice nor any qualifying. Sunday’s field was set by a blind draw broken down in groups of 12. Those three separate groups were determined by owners points.

Wednesday night’s Toyota 500 (6 p.m. ET/FS1/MRN) is determined by an invert of the top 20 finishing spots from Sunday’s race and spots 21-40 in order of how they finished.

So, we’ll get a front row of Ryan Preece and Ty Dillon as Preece brought his No. 37 Chevrolet home in 20th place on Sunday afternoon on the 1.366-mile South Carolina oval with Ty Dillon coming home 19th in his No. 13 Chevrolet. That gets him the second starting spot.

For Preece, the difference in the pole and a 21st starting spot was minimal. The JTG Daugherty Racing driver passed Bubba Wallace for 20th place with just three laps remaining in Sunday’s race. He cleared him on Lap 293, the final lap, by 1.5 seconds which results with him being on the pole and Wallace starting 21st.

How important was that? In 117 past races at Darlington, just six times (5.12%) has someone won from a starting spot outside of the top 20. That’s how important finishing in the top 20 on Sunday was.

Since Kevin Harvick won, he will now roll off 20th.

Toyota 500 Starting Lineup

Row 1: Ryan Preece, Ty Dillon

Row 2: Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer

Row 3: Ryan Blaney, Ryan Newman

Row 4: Matt DiBenedetto, Brad Keselowski

Row 5: Aric Almirola, Austin Dillon

Row 6: Matt Kenseth, John Hunter Nemechek R

Row 7: Erik Jones, Tyler Reddick R

Row 8: Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin

Row 9: Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch

Row 10: Alex Bowman, Kevin Harvick

Row 11: Bubba Wallace, Cole Custer R

Row 12: Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell R

Row 13: Daniel Suarez, Kyle Busch

Row 14: Brennan Poole R, Gray Gaulding

Row 15: Ross Chastain, Joey Gase

Row 16: Corey LaJoie, Chris Buescher

Row 17: Timmy Hill, William Byron

Row 18: Quin Houff R, Garrett Smithley R

Row 19: Jimmie Johnson, BJ McLeod

Row 20: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.