Brad Keselowski celebrated his first pole position of the 2020 season - and perhaps the most memorable of his racing career - from afar.
After waiting nearly a full hour Thursday evening, the Team Penske driver watched NASCAR's chief scorer, Kyle McKinney, finally pluck the No. 1 ball out of a random draw. It gave the 2012 Cup Series champion the prime starting spot when the circuit resumes Sunday at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, roaring back into action after a two-month layoff.
"1st. Woooooo," Keselowski wrote on Twitter.
He will be joined on the front row by Alex Bowman of Hendrick Motorsports. Matt DiBenedetto of Wood Brothers Racing, Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing and Aric Almirola of Stewart-Haas Racing filled out the top five on the starting grid.
For some, NASCAR's revised system worked like a dream. Keselowski, the 2018 Southern 500 winner at Darlington, jumped from 10th in the standings to first in the 36-car lineup. For others, including points leader Kevin Harvick of SHR, things didn't end up so well. The 2014 Cup Series champ drew the No. 6 slot.
And aside from the luck of the draw, there was nothing the drivers could do except wait, watch and hope.
NASCAR 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. Now, without qualifications, practice runs or fans - and stringent safeguards in place amid the coronavirus pandemic - those cars will line up on one of NASCAR's most prestigious tracks for the first major race since March.
Most have spent their time, especially the past couple of weeks, using simulators to prepare.
"To be honest with you, I kind of get sick in the thing," SHR's Clint Bowyer told the television audience before drawing the No. 13 starting spot. "So I've been working on things like the entrance to pit road, something that is very, very difficult at this track. It's going to be a green race track, and that's something everybody's going to deal with."
The focus won't just be on the lead pack.
Ryan Newman will make his first start since a frightening crash at the season-opening Daytona 500. The Roush Fenway Racing driver was cleared to drive following a run at, yes, Darlington and will start 21st.
Two-time Daytona 500 winner and 2003 Cup Series champion Matt Kenseth will return to the track for the first time since November 2018 after coming out of retirement to replace the fired Kyle Larson for Chip Ganassi's team. He drew the No. 12 slot.
"Race week is here! In some ways I feel like I did my rookie year mostly because I just had to wait on DaleJr," Kenseth posted on his Twitter account earlier this week.
Each car will carry the name of someone working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, and after weeks of waiting to race, things will rev up in a harry.
Series officials also announced Thursday they had expanded the schedule to include 20 races from Sunday into late June, including nine in the top-tier Cup Series.
Now, after taking the first step toward racing since early March, the drivers are eager for the biggest restart yet.
"Heck yeah, let's go," said Austin Dillon, the Richard Childress driver who will start 16th. "Just happy to be getting back out on the track."
AP photo by John Raoux / Roush Fenway Racing driver Ryan Newman makes adjustments in his car before a NASCAR Cup Series practice session on Feb. 8 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla.Newman's thoughts
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Ryan Newman said he has no memories of his harrowing accident on the final lap of February's Daytona 500. He doesn't remember being in the hospital, who came to visit or anything else about his two-night stay for treatment of a head injury.
The first thing Newman can recall is walking out of a Florida hospital holding hands with his two young daughters. When he later watched a replay of the crash, he was flabbergasted by the violence of the wreck.
"As I watched the crash and had to make myself believe what I had went through, I really looked to my dad to say, 'Hey, did this really happen?'" Newman said Thursday. "It's crazy. I'm happy I'm here."
Newman will return to racing exactly three months after he crashed Feb. 17 while going for what would have been his second Daytona 500 victory. The coronavirus pandemic allowed Newman additional time to heal, and he ultimately missed just three races.
It's a remarkable recovery from a frightful flight down the final stretch at Daytona. Newman was bumped from behind, and his Ford Mustang made a sharp right into the wall, went airborne and was hit again by Corey LaJoie as the crumpled wreckage tumbled along the track with Newman inside.
Newman doesn't know if Lajoie's car compromised his cockpit; there is no definitive video showing how his head-and-neck restraint system was damaged or how his helmet was "crushed."
"I don't have anything that is conclusive that says that his car hit my helmet. I do know that parts of the inside of my car hit my helmet and crushed it," Newman said. "My helmet did have contact, and my HANS did have contact, and I was being moved backwards in my seat as his car was moving me forward.
"Everything happened really quick, and everything was all in that compartment, basically, and I guess it would be like a case of high-quality whiplash that kind of happened when I was hit."
He was sedated, he said, almost immediately to calm him and ultimately keep him settled so that his brain could heal. He said he suffered "a brain bruise."
"I kind of put it in layman's terms of having a bruised brain because everybody knows what a bruise is," said the Purdue engineering graduate and Indiana native. "You can't see a concussion. It's just a medical diagnosis. But a bruise you can see.
"So I kind of self-diagnosed myself with that bruised brain because the reality is you need to give time for a bruise to heal, and that's what I needed was time for my brain to heal."
It's fitting that his return - and NASCAR's - is at Darlington, Newman's favorite venue.
He was healing fast enough three weeks after the accident that Roush-Fenway Racing took Newman to the South Carolina track to test. It was before the shutdown and the eight postponed races kept Newman in contention for a playoff spot. He's 29th in the standings after four races and still eligible to race for the championship.
Newman said he was eager to get back into the car when he tested in March.
"I actually had to slow myself down and make sure that I didn't go out there and fence it on the first lap by trying too hard," Newman said. "I never felt like I had to be apprehensive towards it, other than the fact that I wanted to make sure that I didn't mess up my own test. I was there to prove that I was valid in the seat again."
Newman, long known as the hardest driver in NASCAR to pass, said he's race fit for Sunday's event on one of the most technical tracks in the series.
"I'm hoping to do every lap and then one more after that," he said. "I think they are having a victory lap still."
AP photo by Ralph Freso / Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch walks out during driver introductions before the NASCAR Cup Series race on March 8 at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Ariz.Busy, busy Kyle Busch
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Reigning Cup Series champion Kyle Busch will sprint back into competition when the 2020 NASCAR season resumes by running all seven races that have been scheduled over an 11-day span.
Busch will drive the JGR No. 18 Toyota on Sunday at Darlington Raceway, then again next Wednesday when the series returns to the South Carolina track. He will also run at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, on May 24 and May 27.
In between, Busch will run for JGR in the Xfinity Series race next Tuesday at Darlington and again at CMS on May 25. He also will race in the Truck Series at CMS for Kyle Busch Motorsports, which means a scheduled 1,100 miles over three days.
His calendar includes all seven of the initial races NASCAR has rescheduled in its return from the pandemic shutdown, spokesman Bill Janitz confirmed Thursday.
Busch was not originally scheduled to enter the Truck Series race at CMS because he was ineligible as it was designated part of a NASCAR challenge. That's been altered, though, and Busch can now compete.
The Xfinity Series race at Darlington replaces the event at Chicagoland Speedway that Busch was scheduled to race this summer. That race has been canceled.
NASCAR rules limit Busch to just seven second-tier Xfinity Series and five third-tier Truck Series appearances per season, restrictions he is unhappy with. A year ago, Busch won all five Truck Series races he entered and four of the seven races in the Xfinity Series.
He also added a second Cup Series championship for JGR - he also won that title in 2015 - in a five-win season.
A Truck Series victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is Busch's only win so far this season, and he's ranked 12th in the Cup Series standings. Busch had a pair of top-five finishes through the first four events on that circuit before the season was suspended.
Busch is the all-time wins leader in the Xfinity Series (96) and the Truck Series (57), and with his 56 Cup Series wins he is NASCAR's all-time leader in combined victories across its three national series. Hall of Famer and seven-time Cup Series champ Richard Petty is second on that list, with all 200 of his victories on the top circuit.