In the Wendy's Watermelon Lemonade car, it's the Watermelon Man himself set to lead the field to the green flag in Saturday night's 2026 NASCAR Cup Series regular season-ending Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
Trackhouse Racing's Ross Chastain took the pole position for Saturday's 160-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked oval in Daytona Beach, Florida by recording a top lap speed of 184.396 miles per hour in the second round of qualifying behind the wheel of his No. 1 Chevrolet
RFK Racing's Chris Buescher, whom he beat to the top spot by 0.051 seconds, is set to start beside him on the front row in second place behind the wheel of his No. 17 Ford. Buescher is locked into this year's 10-race "Chase" playoffs, while Chastain was eliminated a week ago at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Here's a look at the full starting lineup for Sunday's Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona. Note that pre-race penalties are not factored into the chart below.
Full NASCAR Cup Series starting lineup at Daytona
Order | Driver |
|---|---|
1 | Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
2 | Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford |
3 | Austin Hill, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet |
4 | Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford |
5 | Riley Herbst, No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota |
6 | Shane van Gisbergen, No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
7 | Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
8 | Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford |
9 | Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford |
10 | Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
11 | Corey Heim, No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota |
12 | Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
13 | William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
14 | Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
15 | Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota |
16 | Cole Custer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet |
17 | Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota |
18 | Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
19 | Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford |
20 | Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
21 | Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford |
22 | Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
23 | Daniel Suarez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
24 | Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford |
25 | Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet |
26 | Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota |
27 | John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota |
28 | Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
29 | Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet |
30 | Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
31 | Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet |
32 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet |
33 | Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
34 | Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
35 | Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
36 | A.J. Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet |
37 | Noah Gragson, No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
38 | Casey Mears, No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet |
39 | Daniel Dye, No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet |
40 | Joey Gase, No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet |
Only Garage 66's Gray Gaulding failed to qualify, in what was his first Cup Series appearance since June 2023.
For the first time this year, a NASCAR Cup Series race is set to be shown live on NBC this Saturday night. Live coverage of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 from Daytona International Speedway is set to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and tune in!
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