The first of four non-oval races on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is Sunday's DuraMAX Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas, after the season began with back-to-back superspeedway races at Daytona International Speedway and EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway).
For the second year in a row, NASCAR is set to utilized the Austin, Texas road course's 17-turn, 2.4-mile (3.862-kilometer) layout, rather than the full 20-turn, 3.41-mile (5.488-kilometer) course that had been used from 2021 to 2024.
When it comes to road course qualifying, things are fairly straightforward. Drivers are split up into two groups, based on the qualifying metric, which is explained in more detail here.
Due to the typical advantage of going out later to qualify, the drivers with the lower (better) metric scores are placed in the second group, while the drivers with the higher (worse) metric scores are placed in the first. Each group is allotted 20 minutes of track times, and the results of both groups are combined to determine the full starting lineup.
Follow along with our qualifying updates from COTA.
NASCAR Cup Series starting lineup at COTA
Rank | Driver |
|---|---|
1 | Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota |
2 | Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
3 | Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
4 | Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford |
5 | Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
6 | Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
7 | A.J. Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet |
8 | Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
9 | Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
10 | William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
11 | Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
12 | Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
13 | Shane van Gisbergen, No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
14 | Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford |
15 | Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
16 | Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
17 | Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
18 | Cole Custer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet |
19 | Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
20 | Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford |
21 | Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet |
22 | Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford |
23 | Daniel Suarez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
24 | Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota |
25 | Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
26 | Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford |
27 | Jesse Love, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet |
28 | Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford |
29 | Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford |
30 | Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet |
31 | John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota |
32 | Riley Herbst, No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota |
33 | Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet |
34 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet |
35 | Noah Gragson, No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
36 | Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota |
37 | Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet |
Fox's live coverage of the DuraMAX Grand Prix is set to begin at 3:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, March 1. Begin a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss any of the action from Circuit of the Americas!