Brad Keselowski has won the pole for Sunday's race at Darlington Raceway without burning an ounce of fuel.
The Team Penske driver watched NASCAR's chief scorer Kyle McKinney finally pluck the No. 1 ball out of a random draw, giving the 2012 series champion the top starting position when the Cup season resumes.
Keselowski will be joined on the front row by Alex Bowman of Hendrick Motorsports.
Matt DiBenedetto, Kyle Busch and Aric Almirola close out the top five starting spots.
Series officials split the drivers into three groups of 12 based on points, filling spots 1-12, 13-24 and 25-36 with a random draw.
Inother motor sports news, it will be a summer in the South for NASCAR.
The stock car series says it will stick to Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, Florida and Alabama for June races, all of them without fans.
NASCAR has now set plans for 20 races, including nine in the elite Cup Series. It is coming back after being shut down for more than two months by the pandemic.
The Cup Series resumes this Sunday at Darlington Raceway and run four times in 11 days at the South Carolina track and at Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina.
Then NASCAR will go to Bristol, Martinsville, Atlanta, Homestead and Talladega.
with files from Associated Press