Qualifying report
NASCAR Cup Atlanta
Atlanta NASCAR Cup qualifying cancelled, Tyler Reddick on pole
The newly crowned Daytona 500 will lead the field to the green flag in Sunday's NASCAR Cup race
Nick DeGroot
Edited: Feb 21, 2026, 6:26 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Rain at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta)
Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images
Unfortunately, rain showers and lightning prevented NASCAR from holding Cup Series qualifying on Saturday morning. Instead, the metric will set the starting lineup. The system was slightly altered for 2026, so now it's just an average of the car's place in the owner standings (30%), and the entry's finish in the most recent race (70%).
As a result, championship leader and Daytona 500 winner Tyler Reddick will start from pole position on Sunday, and the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota granted the preferred pit box for the second race of the 2026 season. Joey Logano, who won his Duel race and finished third (while crashing) in the 500, will join him on the front row in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will start third, Chase Elliott fourth, and Brad Keselowski fifth. Zane Smith, Chris Buescher, Riley Herbst, Bubba Wallace, and Josh Berry will fill out the remainder of the top ten.
Some notables starting outside the top 20 include Ross Chastain in 21st, Ryan Blaney 22nd, Ryan Preece 26th, Shane van Gisbergen 28th, Denny Hamlin 29th, Austin Cindric 30th, Connor Zilisch 31st, Christopher Bell 32nd, Chase Briscoe 34th, and Alex Bowman 36th.
Read Also:
Full starting lineup for NASCAR Cup at Atlanta
Pos. Driver 1 Tyler Reddick 2 Joey Logano 3 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 4 Chase Elliott 5 Brad Keselowski 6 Zane Smith 7 Chris Buescher 8 Riley Herbst 9 Bubba Wallace 10 Josh Berry 11 Noah Gragson 12 Daniel Suarez 13 William Byron 14 Kyle Busch 15 Carson Hocevar 16 Kyle Larson 17 Ty Dillon 18 Cody Ware 19 AJ Allmendinger 20 Michael McDowell 21 Ross Chastain 22 Ryan Blaney 23 Erik Jones 24 John-Hunter Nemechek 25 Ty Gibbs 26 Ryan Preece 27 Cole Custer 28 Shane van Gisbergen 29 Denny Hamlin 30 Austin Cindric 31 Connor Zilisch 32 Christopher Bell 33 Austin Dillon 34 Chase Briscoe 35 Todd Gilliland 36 Alex Bowman 37 BJ McLeod 38 JJ Yeley
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Two NASCAR Cup car chiefs ejected after Atlanta inspection failures
Next article Fatal Hamlin house fire ruled accidental; cause unknown
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Nick DeGroot
Nick Sanchez will compete for 2027 NASCAR Truck title with McAnally-Hilgemann
NASCAR Truck
NASCAR Truck
Homestead
22 h
Nick Sanchez will compete for 2027 NASCAR Truck title with McAnally-Hilgemann
Austin Cindric wins Ford Veterans Day Classic at Daytona
General
General 1 d
Austin Cindric wins Ford Veterans Day Classic at Daytona
9/11 after 25 years: How NASCAR went back racing following September 11 attacks
Feature
NASCAR Cup
Feature
NASCAR Cup 2 mo
9/11 after 25 years: How NASCAR went back racing following September 11 attacks
More from
Joey Logano
Winners and losers from the penultimate round of 2026 NASCAR Cup season at Martinsville
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Martinsville II
10 d
Winners and losers from the penultimate round of 2026 NASCAR Cup season at Martinsville
Joey Logano eliminated from NASCAR title fight: “They were trying to give it to us”
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Martinsville II
11 d
Joey Logano eliminated from NASCAR title fight: “They were trying to give it to us”
Winners and losers from a frantic NASCAR Cup race at Talladega
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Talladega II
17 d
Winners and losers from a frantic NASCAR Cup race at Talladega
Latest news
Sebastien Bourdais hopes latest WEC success will remind teams of his value
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
1 h
Sebastien Bourdais hopes latest WEC success will remind teams of his value
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
2 h
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
Iker Lecuona felt significant differences between Ducati's GP25 and GP26
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
4 h
Iker Lecuona felt significant differences between Ducati's GP25 and GP26
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe