NASCAR Live Race Updates: Cook Out 400 at Richmond

Ryan Preece collected his second career NASCAR Cup Series pole with an impressive 22.244-second (121.381 mph) lap time in Friday's qualifying session at the 0.750-mile short track. Preece topped Tyler Reddick by 0.087 seconds to take the pole position in the penultimate race of the NASCAR Cup Series regular season.

With two races remaining in the regular season, Preece enters this weekend's race at Richmond Raceway as the first driver outside of the Playoff cutline. A win on Saturday night would secure the driver his first career Playoff berth, and a good run could put him in a potential spot to point his way in at Daytona next weekend.

Preece's pole-winning run came after the driver was 37th-fastest in NASCAR Cup Series practice earlier in the day. Preece had high praise for crew chief Derrick Finley, who made adjustments to the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford after practice.

"Yeah, that was great adjustments by [crew chief] Derrick [Finley] and everybody with this Kleenex/Kroger Ford Mustang. I can't thank RFK enough for the opportunity, and boy, what a racecar," Preece said in his post-qualifying interview on TruTV. "It might not have shown up in practice early on for that fast lap, but it did in qualifying."

Read Full Story on Ryan Preece's Richmond Pole by clicking here.

Cook Out 400 Starting Lineup

Click here for the full Cook Out 400 Starting Lineup.

Joey Logano, Carson Hocevar Find Trouble in Practice

Joey Logano suffered a cut right front tire on his 21st lap in NASCAR Cup Series practice, a session where the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford ranked dead-last in single-lap speed. Logano reported that his car was extremely tight in his opening lap on track, and the condition never improved.

Heading into turns 3 and 4 on his 21st lap on track, the tire let go, and Logano pounded the outside wall.

Logano's team would attempt to repair the car enough to make a qualifying run, but Logano suffered from a massive tire rub on his qualifying attempt and was unable to complete a timed lap.

As a result, Logano will be at a major tire disadvantage to the rest of the field in Saturday night's race as he will be unable to transfer his tires from qualifying to use in the race (NASCAR rules state you must scuff you tires by completing a qualifying run in order to transfer the set to the race).

Carson Hocevar also experienced a moment in the final moments of NASCAR Cup Series practice as he went for a spin, but didn't hit anything, on the exit of Turn 4.

Hocevar would go on to qualify in the 15th position for Saturday night's race.

Allmendinger Loses Car Chief, Pit Selection After Multiple Pre-Race Inspection Failures

AJ Allmendinger, who would eventually go on to secure the third-place starting spot for Saturday night's Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway, saw his weekend get off to a less than ideal start as his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet failed pre-race inspection multiple times on Friday afternoon.

While the No. 16 car would pass on its third attempt through the inspection bay, which allowed Allmendinger to take a qualifying time on Friday and prevented the driver from having to perform a pass through penalty following the start of Saturday's race, Allmendinger will be without car chief Jaron Antley, who was ejected, for the remainder of the weekend.

Additionally, Allmendinger's No. 16 Kaulig Racing team will get the final pit stall available this week (pit stalls are selected in order of qualifying results), which turned out to be a big penalty as Allmendinger was the third-fastest qualifier on Friday afternoon.