The eighth of 10 races on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Chase postseason schedule is Sunday's YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, which is the one and only superspeedway drafting race on the playoff schedule and is thus considered arguably the biggest wild card race of the postseason.
Just two races other than the Daytona 500 have featured full fields of 40 cars this year, and the first of those two was the April race at Talladega. But unlike for those two races, nobody will fail to qualify for this Sunday's 188-lap race around the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked oval in Lincoln, Alabama, as there are just 40 cars on the entry list.
And none of the four non-chartered (open) cars on the entry list were on the entry list at Phoenix Raceway this past weekend.
Corey Heim drove the No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota at Phoenix but will not be back this weekend, while four other teams, all part-time teams, are set to field one car each.
NY Racing Team are set to field the No. 44 Chevrolet for Joey Gase, after B.J. McLeod drove it at Charlotte Motor Speedway two weekends ago. Beard Motorsports are set to field the No. 62 Chevrolet for Casey Mears for the first time since the August regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway.
Garage 66 are set to field the No. 66 Ford for Gray Gaulding, two weeks after Gaulding made his first Cup start since 2023 at Charlotte, and Live Fast Motorsports are set to field the No. 78 Chevrolet for Daniel Dye for the first time since that aforementioned Daytona race.
Those four drivers are unsurprisingly set to lead off the qualifying session in their part-time entries, with the order based on the qualifying metric: owner standings (30%) and results of the Phoenix race (70%).
Here's a full look at the qualifying order, provided that we don't end up with yet another canceled qualifying session due to rain.
NASCAR Cup Series qualifying order at Talladega
Order | Driver |
|---|---|
1 | Casey Mears, No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet |
2 | Joey Gase, No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet |
3 | Daniel Dye, No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet |
4 | Gray Gaulding, No. 66 Garage 66 Ford |
5 | Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet |
6 | Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet |
7 | Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet |
8 | John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota |
9 | Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
10 | Riley Herbst, No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota |
11 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet |
12 | Cole Custer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet |
13 | Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
14 | Austin Hill, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet |
15 | Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
16 | Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota |
17 | A.J. Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet |
18 | Shane van Gisbergen, No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
19 | Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
20 | Noah Gragson, No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
21 | Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford |
22 | Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford |
23 | Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford |
24 | Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet |
25 | Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
26 | Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
27 | Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford |
28 | William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
29 | Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford |
30 | Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford |
31 | Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota |
32 | Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
33 | Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
34 | Daniel Suarez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet |
35 | Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
36 | Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford |
37 | Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
38 | Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota |
39 | Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford |
40 | Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota |
Sunday's YellaWood 500 is set to be shown live on NBC from Talladega Superspeedway beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss the 2026 season's antepenultimate race!
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