NASCAR Metric sets Tyler Reddick on Darlington Pole to Open Chase

DARLINGTON, S.C. — The practice and qualifying sessions for the NASCAR Cup Series from Darlington has been rained out.

Tyler Reddick has been named as the polesitter for the Cookout Southern 500 via the NASCAR metric system to open up the 2026 Chase.

The rain came just after the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts series finish their qualifying session and Reddick has a chance to reverse his poor regular season skid with the pole here.

Daniel Suarez will join Reddick on the front row as he will start where he finished the regular season finale one week ago, from second place.

Last week’s winner and the final driver in the Chase, Ryan Preece, will start third. Denny Hamlin enters the Chase on the opposite end of the spectrum from Preece but will share the second row with him from fourth.

Michael McDowell will start fifth as the highest non-Chase driver in the field. Austin Cindric will open the Chase alongside him in the third row from sixth to open his Chase.

Then, Chase Briscoe looks to defend his Southern 500 victory from 2025 in seventh. He will have Ricky Stenhouse Jr to his outside from eighth.

Finally, Austin Dillon and Alex Bowman will round out the top ten starters from ninth and tenth.

Notable Entrants

The rain-out scattered the 2026 Chase drivers throughout the field. Christopher Bell will start the highest of the rest just outside the top ten from 11th.

Then Joey Logano will start 13th and Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliott will share a row from 17th and 18th.

William Byron will start just inside the top 20 from 20th. Then his teammate Kyle Larson will be behind him in 25th.

Ryan Blaney will start 24th and Ty Gibbs two rows behind him from 28th.

Carson Hocevar and Chris Buescher will be the furthest back of their fellow Chase participants. They will start together from 34th and 35th and have the most ground to make up.

38 cars entered the Southern 500. Corey Heim rejoins the field in his 23XI Racing No. 67 and start 27th. Then Chad Finchum will pilot the Garage 66 No. 66 from 38th and last.

All 38 entrants will start the event. Below is the full starting lineup for the Cookout Southern 500 from Darlington Raceway.

Starting Lineup