The NASCAR Cup Series is set to arrive at Darlington Raceway for its 27th race of the 2026 season. It is the second date at Darlington, as NASCAR also goes to the venue in the spring. In 2025, Denny Hamlin won the pole for the Cup Series race at Darlington, marking his first pole of the playoffs.
First, the Cup Series needs to qualify for the event at Darlington, and the qualifying format is simple. Every driver will make a one-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 Southern
500 at Darlington this weekend!
NASCAR Cup Series qualifying order for Darlington (September 2026):
(Qualifying Order)
- No. 66 Chad Finchum
- No. 51 Cody Ware
- No. 43 Erik Jones
- No. 38 Zane Smith
- No. 33 Austin Hill
- No. 88 Connor Zilisch
- No. 16 AJ Allmendinger
- No. 4 Noah Gragson
- No. 10 Ty Dillon
- No. 97 Shane Van Gisbergen
- No. 1 Ross Chastain
- No. 67 Corey Heim
- No. 34 Todd Gilliland
- No. 42 John H. Nemechek
- No. 41 Cole Custer
- No. 35 Riley Herbst
- No. 21 Josh Berry
- No. 6 Brad Keselowski
- No. 48 Alex Bowman
- No. 3 Austin Dillon
- No. 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- No. 71 Michael McDowell
- No. 17 Chris Buescher
- No. 77 Carson Hocevar
- No. 54 Ty Gibbs
- No. 5 Kyle Larson
- No. 12 Ryan Blaney
- No. 24 William Byron
- No. 9 Chase Elliott
- No. 23 Bubba Wallace
- No. 22 Joey Logano
- No. 20 Christopher Bell
- No. 19 Chase Briscoe
- No. 2 Austin Cindric
- No. 11 Denny Hamlin
- No. 60 Ryan Preece
- No. 7 Daniel Suarez
- No. 45 Tyler Reddick
This article originally appeared on Motorsports Wire: NASCAR qualifying order for Cup Series at Darlington in September 2026
