Why is distributor pointing away from #1 on TDC?

years ago some guys at Jiffy lube bought an old v8 camaro-gonna go racing-had no plug wires. so the gearhead in the group said "I will run home at lunch and get my book and have this fired up by 6 pm. Same firing order as a 340. at lunch I popped out number 1 plug, rotate with thumb over hole for getting #1 on the compression stroke, at 10 degrees before top. install #1 plug where rotor is pointing