The NASCAR Cup Series is set for the first of its two races at Martinsville Speedway on the 2026 schedule this weekend.
Martinsville, a four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) oval, is the shortest oval on the 36-race schedule, and it is set to host the series' first true short track race of the year; Phoenix Raceway hosted a race earlier this month, but that oval is technically 1.022 miles in length and considered an intermediate track.
Because the Ridgeway, Virginia oval is a short track, each driver is set to get two qualifying laps, rather than just one, although drivers can opt to simply take one lap instead of two. The faster of the two laps counts, not the two-lap average.
There is still set to be just one single round of qualifying, unlike on superspeedways; there is no top 10 shootout for the pole position.
NASCAR's qualifying metric, which was introduced in 2020 and revised ahead of the 2025 season, determined the full 37-car qualifying order for Sunday's Cook Out 400 ahead of Saturday's qualifying session.
A full breakdown of that formula can be found here.
There are two notable changes to the entry list since this past weekend's race at Darlington Raceway. While a driver named Hill is once againt the only driver of a non-chartered (open) car, it's a different Hill, and with a different team.
Timmy Hill drove the No. 66 Ford for Garage 66 (MBM Motorsports) at Darlington, but the No. 66 car is not on this weekend's entry list. Austin Hill is set to drive the No. 33 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing for the second time this season, and for the first time ever in a Cup race at Martinsville.
Here's a look at the Martinsville qualifying order.
NASCAR Cup Series qualifying order at Martinsville
Order | Driver |
|---|---|
1 | Austin Hill, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet |
2 | Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet |
3 | Riley Herbst, No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota |
4 | Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet |
5 | Cole Custer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet |
6 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet |
7 | Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford |
8 | Justin Allgaier, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
9 | Noah Gragson, No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
10 | John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota |
11 | A.J. Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet |
12 | Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
13 | Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet |
14 | Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
15 | Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota |
16 | Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
17 | Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet |
18 | Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford |
19 | Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
20 | Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
21 | Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
22 | Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
23 | Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
24 | Shane van Gisbergen, No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
25 | Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota |
26 | Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford |
27 | Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
28 | Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford |
29 | Daniel Suarez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
30 | Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
31 | Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford |
32 | Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
33 | William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
34 | Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
35 | Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford |
36 | Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford |
37 | Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota |
Fox Sports 1's live coverage of Sunday's Cook Out 400 from Martinsville Speedway is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. ET. Begin a free trial of FuboTV today and catch all of the action from the "Paperclip"!