The Dollar Tree 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway is the 25th of 26 races on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series regular season schedule. New Hampshire was added back to the playoff schedule for the first time since 2017 in 2025, but it was moved back into the regular season for this year.
Although New Hampshire is generally considered a one-mile oval, it is actually 1.058 miles in length, meaning that it will be treated like an intermediate track, not a short track, for the purpose of qualifying for Sunday afternoon's 301-lap race.
Each driver is set to make a single-lap qualifying attempt in Saturday's single-car session at the Loudon, New Hampshire venue, rather than a two-lap attempt like we see on short tracks. Additionally, there is no second round shootout for pole position like there is on superspeedways.
The qualifying order was set, as usual, by the qualifying metric, which factors in each car's result in the most recent race at Richmond Raceway and its position in the owner standings.
The only entry list change since this past weekend's race at Richmond Raceway is the removal of Garage 66 (MBM Motorsports) from the entry list, after they fielded the No. 66 Ford for Josh Bilicki. With that car having been the only non-chartered (open) car to compete at Richmond, this weekend's race is set to be just the fourth (third on an oval) to feature exclusively the 36 chartered cars this year.
One other minor change was announced when Legacy Motor Club decided to run the No. 40 on John Hunter Nemechek's Toyota, rather than his usual No. 42, as a nod to the 40th anniversary of Dollar Tree, which has been a team partner since January 2024 and is the title sponsor of Sunday's race.
Here's a look at Saturday's full qualifying order for Sunday's Dollar Tree 301 at New Hampshire.
New Hampshire NASCAR Cup Series qualifying order
Order | Driver |
|---|---|
1 | Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet |
2 | Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet |
3 | Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
4 | Cole Custer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet |
5 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet |
6 | A.J. Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet |
7 | Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
8 | Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
9 | Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
10 | Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
11 | Austin Hill, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet |
12 | Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota |
13 | Riley Herbst, No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota |
14 | Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford |
15 | John Hunter Nemechek, No. 40 Legacy Motor Club Toyota |
16 | Noah Gragson, No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
17 | Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet |
18 | Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota |
19 | Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford |
20 | Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford |
21 | Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
22 | Daniel Suarez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
23 | Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford |
24 | Shane van Gisbergen, No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
25 | Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
26 | Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
27 | William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
28 | Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford |
29 | Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota |
30 | Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
31 | Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford |
32 | Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
33 | Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
34 | Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford |
35 | Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
36 | Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
USA Network's live coverage of the Dollar Tree 301 is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, August 23. Don't miss any of the action from the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series regular season's penultimate race at the "Magic Mile"!
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