It seems NASCAR simply cannot escape the Saturday rain as of late. After moving both sessions two hours earlier in the day, NASCAR was forced to cancel Cup Series practice and qualifying for the Chase race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The first Atlantic hurricane of the 2026 season managed to adversely impact NASCAR right in the middle of its championship battle. Rain from Hurricane Isaias made it impossible for both Cup and the NASCAR O’Reilly Series to practice or qualify, with the NOAPS race postponed to Sunday evening.
NASCAR’s qualifying metric — a weighted average of a car’s place in the owner standings (30%), and the entry’s finish in the most recent race (70%) — will now decide the starting lineup for the sixth of ten Chase races. That same metric has been used in four of the first six Chase races where NASCAR was unable to get qualifying in due to inclement weather.
Championship leader Kyle Larson will start from pole with Chase Briscoe joining him on the front row. Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, and Austin Cindric will fill out the remainder of the top five.
Denny Hamlin, who is second in the standings and 40pts behind Larson, will start 12th.
The lowest-starting Chase drivers will be Christopher Bell in 17th and Ryan Preece in 24th.
2026 NASCAR Cup Charlotte II Starting Lineup
| Pos. | Driver |
| 1 | Kyle Larson (C) |
| 2 | Chase Briscoe (C) |
| 3 | Tyler Reddick (C) |
| 4 | Ryan Blaney (C) |
| 5 | Austin Cindric (C) |
| 6 | William Byron (C) |
| 7 | Joey Logano (C) |
| 8 | Bubba Wallace (C) |
| 9 | Chase Elliott (C) |
| 10 | Carson Hocevar (C) |
| 11 | Shane van Gisbergen |
| 12 | Denny Hamlin (C) |
| 13 |
Chris Buescher (C) |
| 14 | Ty Gibbs (C) |
| 15 | Daniel Suarez (C) |
| 16 | Alex Bowman |
| 17 | Christopher Bell (C) |
| 18 | AJ Allmendinger |
| 19 | Michael McDowell |
| 20 | Austin Dillon |
| 21 | Riley Herbst |
| 22 | Brad Keselowski |
| 23 | Noah Gragson |
| 24 | Ryan Preece (C) |
| 25 | Erik Jones |
| 26 | Austin Hill |
| 27 | Josh Berry |
| 28 | Ross Chastain |
| 29 | John Hunter Nemechek |
| 30 | Cole Custer |
| 31 | Todd Gilliland |
| 32 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
| 33 | Ty Dillon |
| 34 | Zane Smith |
| 35 | Cody Ware |
| 36 | Connor Zilisch |
| 37 | Corey Heim |
| 38 | Gray Gaulding |
| 39 | BJ McLeod |
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