After shaking down their cars in practice and cleaning up some ‘weepers’ of water caused by melting snow, qualifying got underway for the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray.
In this format, the 20 fastest drivers advance directly into the main event, while positions 21-38 will transfer to the last-chance qualifier. Only the top two finishers from the LCQ will get to take part in the pre-season exhibition race on Wednesday evening.
Qualifying was split into three groups based on owner points.
In Round 1, Ryan Preece led the way with a fast lap of 14.234s in the first group. He was in that very first group after transferring owner points with Rick Ware Racing's No. 51, giving him 36th place points going into the 2026 season.
19-year-old Connor Zilisch — fresh off of finishing P2 overall in the Rolex 24 at Daytona — and the only rookie competing full-time in Cup this year, got to within 0.003s of Preece's fast lap in the next group on track, but Preece remained P1.
The first of two groups from Round 2 finally saw a change atop the leaderboard. Preece fell to fourth as Ty Gibbs went fastest of all with a 14.145s lap around the quarter-mile short track. Chris Buescher was the fastest driver from Group B in Round 2, but Gibbs remained on provisional pole by over two hundredths.
Round 3 featured the top cars from the 2025 championship, but Gibbs held off the first group, even as Bubba Wallace shot up to P2 with a 14.152s.
Final qualifying results and the LCQ
However, the final group finally saw Gibbs toppled by the might of Hendrick Motorsports. Reigning champion Kyle Larson rocketed to the top of the charts with a fast lap of 14.137s, and teammate William Byron joining him on the front row with a fast lap of 14.140s.
Gibbs will start third, Chase Briscoe fourth, and Christopher Bell fifth. Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, and Tyler Reddick filled out the remainder of the top ten.
They were followed by defending Clash winner Chase Elliott, Carson Hocevar, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Austin Dillon, Ryan Blaney, Shane van Gisbergen, and Preece.
Zilisch and Daniel Suarez were the final two drivers to lock themselves into the main event in P19 and P20, while Josh Berry and Michael McDowell were the first two drivers out, so they made up the front row for the LCQ.
