Factoring in the uniqueness of qualifying for the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway and the fact that qualifying for the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season's second race at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta Motor Speedway) was rained out, NASCAR has yet to run a traditional superspeedway qualifying session this year.
It might not happen this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, either.
Single-car qualifying for Sunday's 188-lap Jack Link's 500 around the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked Lincoln, Alabama oval is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. ET on Saturday morning, but The Weather Channel is calling for showers and even some thunderstorms throughout the morning and into the afternoon.
Should qualifying be rained out, the same metric that is used to determine the qualifying order would determine the full 40-car starting lineup for Sunday's race, albeit in reverse order.
That metric is a two-variable metric which NASCAR introduced ahead of the 2025 season, as the replacement for the far more complicated four-variable formula that had been in place since 2020.
A full breakdown of the current formula can be found here.
Notably, there are 41 cars on the entry list, and only 40 can compete, meaning one will fail to qualify. The No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet, which is set to be driven by Casey Mears, is the only one of the five non-chartered (open) cars on the entry list that has not officially competed in a race this year, so it would be the one car that ultimately fails to qualify if qualifying is washed out.
Here's a look at the full starting lineup for the Jack Link's 500, in the event that qualifying cannot happen on Saturday.
NASCAR starting lineup at Talladega if there's no qualifying
Order | Driver |
|---|---|
1 | Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota |
2 | Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
3 | Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
4 | Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota |
5 | Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
6 | Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford |
7 | William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
8 | Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
9 | Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
10 | Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford |
11 | Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford |
12 | Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
13 | Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford |
14 | Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
15 | Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford |
16 | Daniel Suarez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
17 | Riley Herbst, No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota |
18 | Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet |
19 | Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
20 | Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
21 | Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota |
22 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet |
23 | John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota |
24 | Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
25 | Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford |
26 | Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford |
27 | Cole Custer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet |
28 | A.J. Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet |
29 | Noah Gragson, No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
30 | Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
31 | Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
32 | Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
33 | Shane van Gisbergen, No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
34 | Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet |
35 | Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet |
36 | Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet |
37 | Jesse Love, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet |
38 | Chad Finchum, No. 66 Garage 66 Ford |
39 | Joey Gase, No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet |
40 | Daniel Dye, No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet |
Fox is set to provide live coverage of Sunday afternoon's Jack Link's 500 from Talladega Superspeedway starting at 3:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and catch all of the action from the high banks of NASCAR's biggest oval!
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