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

Watch: Brexton Busch honors dad Kyle with burnout, signature bow

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