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 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!