Unfortunately, constant lightning on a very hot day in Darlington forced NASCAR to cancel Cup Series qualifying for the very first race of the 2026 Chase...even without a single drop of rain.
As a result, the metric will set the starting lineup, which is a weighted average of a car's place in the owner standings (30%), and the entry's finish in the most recent race (70%).
Tyler Reddick, who finished third at Daytona and enters Darlington as the No. 3 Chase seed, will start the Southern 500 from pole position in the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota. He will be joined on the front row by No. 11 Chase seed and Daytona runner-up finisher Daniel Suarez in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
"For everyone at home watching and everyone here that wanted to watch practice and Qualifying, obviously a bummer, but for the 45, I mean, this is the best case scenario," said Reddick. "You know, we know exactly what we have and how happy we're worth it in the spring and no one really got a chance to go on the track and try things. So, again, my confidence was already sky-high coming into this weekend with what we had and, yeah, we'll see how the race goes tomorrow night, but this is great."
Ryan Preece will start third in the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford after earning his first career win last weekend, snatching away the 16th and final spot in the Chase. No. 1 Chase seed Denny Hamlin will start fourth, and Michael McDowell is highest-starting non-Chase driver in fifth.
Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon, and Alex Bowman round out the top ten.
The lowest-starting among the title contenders will be Carson Hocevar in 34th and Chris Buescher in 35th. The 'best of the rest' in 17th will be Michael McDowell.
2026 NASCAR Cup Southern 500 at Darlington Starting Lineup
| Pos. | Driver |
| 1 | Tyler Reddick (No. 3 seed) |
| 2 | Daniel Suarez (No. 11 seed) |
| 3 | Ryan Preece (No. 16 seed) |
| 4 | Denny Hamlin (No. 1 seed) |
| 5 | Michael McDowell |
| 6 | Austin Cindric (No. 15 seed) |
| 7 | Chase Briscoe (No. 5 seed) |
| 8 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
| 9 | Austin Dillon |
| 10 | Alex Bowman |
| 11 | Christopher Bell (No. 6 seed) |
| 12 | Brad Keselowski |
| 13 | Joey Logano (No. 9 seed) |
| 14 | Josh Berry |
| 15 | Riley Herbst |
| 16 | Cole Custer |
| 17 | Bubba Wallace (No. 14 seed) |
| 18 | Chase Elliott (No. 8 seed) |
| 19 | John Hunter Nemechek |
| 20 | William Byron (No. 13 seed) |
| 21 | Todd Gilliland |
| 22 | Corey Heim |
| 23 | Ross Chastain |
| 24 | Ryan Blaney (No. 2 seed) |
| 25 | Kyle Larson (No. 7 seed) |
| 26 | Shane van Gisbergen |
| 27 | Ty Dillon |
| 28 | Ty Gibbs (No. 4 seed) |
| 29 | Noah Gragson |
| 30 | AJ Allmendinger |
| 31 | Connor Zilisch |
| 32 | Austin Hill |
| 33 | Zane Smith |
| 34 | Carson Hocevar (No. 12 seed) |
| 35 | Chris Buescher (No. 10 seed) |
| 36 | Erik Jones |
| 37 | Cody Ware |
| 38 | Chad Finchum |
