The NASCAR Cup Series is set to arrive at Richmond Raceway for its 24th race of the 2026 season. It is the only date at Richmond, as NASCAR only goes to the venue once per year. In 2025, Ryan Preece won the pole for the Cup Series race at Richmond, marking his first and final pole position during the season.
First, the Cup Series needs to qualify for the event at Richmond, and the qualifying format is simple. Every driver will make a two-lap run, with the overall lap times determining the starting lineup. There will only be one round, and the groups do not matter in setting the starting lineup by the inside or outside rows. The metric system determines the qualifying order.
Below, you can check out the NASCAR qualifying order and groups for the 2026
Cook Out 400 at Richmond this weekend!
NASCAR Cup Series qualifying order for Richmond (August 2026):
(Qualifying Order)
- No. 66 Josh Bilicki
- No. 51 Cody Ware
- No. 48 Alex Bowman
- No. 43 Erik Jones
- No. 41 Cole Custer
- No. 33 Austin Hill
- No. 10 Ty Dillon
- No. 45 Tyler Reddick
- No. 5 Kyle Larson
- No. 97 Shane van Gisbergen
- No. 2 Austin Cindric
- No. 6 Brad Keselowski
- No. 77 Carson Hocevar
- No. 71 Michael McDowell
- No. 34 Todd Gilliland
- No. 35 Riley Herbst
- No. 42 John Hunter Nemechek
- No. 4 Noah Gragson
- No. 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- No. 7 Daniel Suarez
- No. 60 Ryan Preece
- No. 38 Zane Smith
- No. 88 Connor Zilisch
- No. 3 Austin Dillon
- No. 22 Joey Logano
- No. 23 Bubba Wallace
- No. 9 Chase Elliott
- No. 16 AJ Allmendinger
- No. 21 Josh Berry
- No. 17 Chris Buescher
- No. 1 Ross Chastain
- No. 24 William Byron
- No. 19 Chase Briscoe
- No. 11 Denny Hamlin
- No. 20 Christopher Bell
- No. 12 Ryan Blaney
- No. 54 Ty Gibbs
This article originally appeared on Motorsports Wire: NASCAR qualifying order for Cup Series at Richmond in August 2026
