After races at Darlington Raceway and World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway got the opening round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs underway, Saturday night's Bass Pro Shops Night Race is set determine which 10 of the remaining playoff drivers will join Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin in advancing from the round of 16 to the round of 12.
Saturday night's race, which is the final Saturday night race of the year, is scheduled to be a 500-lap race around the four-turn, 0.533-mile (0.858-kilometer) high-banked Bristol, Tennessee oval, and qualifying is scheduled to take place on Friday evening.
The full 39-car qualifying order was determined by the two-variable metric which NASCAR introduced ahead of the 2025 season to replace the more complicated four-variable metric which had been used from 2020 to 2024.
A full breakdown of the current formula, which was used at Bristol back in April, can be found here.
For the playoffs, although there aren't actually any qualifying groups, and thus no row-by-row lane designations, the metric is first used to determine the order in which the non-playoff drivers qualify, and then it is used to determine the order in which the playoff drivers qualify, thus ensuring that the 16 remaining championship eligible drivers are the last 16 drivers to make qualifying attempts.
There is no longer a second round shootout for the pole position. Because Bristol is a short track, each driver is set to get two laps as a part of their qualifying attempt, with the fastest of the two laps being the lap that counts. Those speeds then determine the full starting lineup.
Here's a full look at this weekend's qualifying order.
NASCAR Cup Series playoff qualifying order at Bristol
Non-playoff drivers
1 - Corey Heim, No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota
2 - Chad Finchum, No. 66 Garage 66 Ford
3 - Austin Hill, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
4 - Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
5 - Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
6 - Riley Herbst, No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota
7 - Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford
8 - Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford
9 - Noah Gragson, No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford
10 - Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford
11 - Cole Custer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Ford
12 - Justin Haley, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
13 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet
14 - A.J. Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
15 - Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
16 - Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
17 - Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford
18 - Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
19 - Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
20 - Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford
21 - Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
22 - John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
23 - Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford
Playoff drivers
24 - Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford
25 - Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
26 - Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
27 - Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
28 - Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford
29 - Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
30 - Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota
31 - William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
32 - Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
33 - Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
34 - Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota
35 - Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford
36 - Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
37 - Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford
38 - Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
39 - Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
USA Network is set to provide live coverage of the Bass Pro Shops Night Race from Bristol Motor Speedway starting at 7:30 p.m. ET this Saturday, September 13. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and catch all of the action from the round of 16 finale!