NASCAR Cup Series qualifying was rained out at Talladega Superspeedway, setting Sunday's starting lineup based on the rulebook.
LINCOLN, Ala. -- NASCAR Cup Series qualifying was rained out at Talladega Superspeedway, setting Sunday's starting lineup based on the rulebook.
As a result, Tyler Reddick will start on the pole again. He is looking for his sixth win in 10 races in 2026 after scoring an historic fifth win last Sunday at Kansas Speedway. Of those five wins, two have come on the drafting tracks the Cup Series has seen so far this season: Daytona International Speedway and EchoPark Speedway Atlanta.
Reddick will share the front row with Kyle Larson, who finished second in last week's race at Kansas. Larson has been getting better at drafting tracks, leading laps at Atlanta earlier this year and contending for the win at Talladega in both races last year.
Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs and Chris Buescher round out the top-10 starters.
Hamlin led the most laps last weekend and was on his way to his second win of 2026 before a caution sent the race into overtime. Ultimately, he still finished inside the top-five.
Wallace is coming off of his first top-five finish of the season at Kansas (fifth).
Briscoe had a late-race charge at Kansas that finally put him in Chase contention for the first time in a month. Now at Talladega, he is the most recent winner and is trying to become the first driver since Ryan Blaney in 2019-20 to win two Talladega Cup races in a row.
Keselowski earned two second-place finishes in a row at Talladega in 2024.
Byron has earned the most points at Talladega of any driver in the NextGen era. He's looking for redemption after spinning from near the lead at the finish of last fall's race.
Elliott won in fall 2022 at Talladega while Gibbs and Buescher are still looking for their first Cup win at Talladega.
Last year's spring winner Austin Cindric will start 13th. The aforementioned Blaney, Cindric's teammate. will start 15th. Cindric and Blaney's teammate, Joey Logano, will start 25th after finishing 30th at Kansas.
Rounding out the field in 37th through 40th are four open entries: Jesse Love for Richard Childress Racing, Chad Finchum for Garage 66, Joey Gase for NY Racing Team and Daniel Dye for Team LiveFast.
Since qualifying was canceled and the lineup was set by the rulebook, Beard Motorsports' No. 62 Chevrolet with driver Casey Mears was the odd team out. They will head home after not getting to even turn a lap on the 2.66-mile track due to no practice this weekend.
