For only the fourth time in the 2026 NASCAR season, every Cup car entry will start at Talladega Superspeedway for the YellaWood 500 on Sunday, sending a 40-car pack around a Chase field separated by just 56 points across seven drivers, according to NASCAR.com‘s staff entry list report.
Fox Sports reporter Bob Pockrass reported the unusual starting lineup in a social media post Tuesday afternoon. “Yes. All 40 Cup entries will start at Talladega,” Pockrass wrote.
NASCAR posted the entries Monday, Oct. 19 naming exactly 40 cars, which left no one to miss the cut, according to Frontstretch. Cup teams will not practice. Qualifying takes place Saturday at 1 p.m. ET on truTV, with the green flag Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
At least three Cup races earlier this season drew 40 or more entries.
- Daytona 500: 45 cars entered, according to Beyond the Flag‘s Daytona 500 lineup report, and 41 started, according to NBC Sports‘ 2026 Daytona 500 lineup.
- Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega, April 26: 41 cars entered and Casey Mears missed the field, leaving 40 starters, according to Beyond the Flag‘s spring Talladega lineup report.
- Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, summer race: 41 cars entered and one failed to qualify, according to NASCAR.com‘s Daytona summer race entry list.
Sunday’s race, with exactly 40 entries, makes a fourth.
| NASCAR CUP SERIES — YELLAWOOD 500 ENTRY LIST | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 58th Annual YellaWood 500 • Talladega Superspeedway • October 25, 2026 • Last Updated: 10/19/2026 | |||||
| Entry | Car # | Driver | Organization | Mfr | Sponsor |
| 1 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Trackhouse Racing | Chevy | Busch Light Hunting |
| 2 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Team Penske | Ford | Menards/Knauf |
| 3 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Richard Childress Racing | Chevy | Get Bioethanol |
| 4 | 4 | Noah Gragson | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | Rush Truck Centers |
| 5 | 5 | Kyle Larson | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevy | HendrickCars.com |
| 6 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | RFK Racing | Ford | Consumer Cellular |
| 7 | 7 | Daniel Suárez | Spire Motorsports | Chevy | Freeway Insurance |
| 8 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevy | NAPA Auto Parts |
| 9 | 10 | Ty Dillon | Kaulig Racing | Chevy | Grizzly Nicotine Pouches |
| 10 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | National Debt Relief |
| 11 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Team Penske | Ford | Advance Auto Parts |
| 12 | 16 | A.J. Allmendinger | Kaulig Racing | Chevy | Morris-Shea Bridge Co., Inc. |
| 13 | 17 | Chris Buescher | RFK Racing | Ford | Kroger / Thomas’ Protein English Muffins / Oscar Mayer |
| 14 | 19 | Chase Briscoe | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | Bass Pro Shops |
| 15 | 20 | Christopher Bell | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | DeWalt |
| 16 | 21 | Josh Berry | Wood Brothers Racing | Ford | WURTH |
| 17 | 22 | Joey Logano | Team Penske | Ford | Shell-Pennzoil |
| 18 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | 23XI Racing | Toyota | Kroger Health |
| 19 | 24 | William Byron | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevy | All-Pro Reconditioning |
| 20 | 33 | Austin Hill (i) | Richard Childress Racing | Chevy | United Rentals |
| 21 | 34 | Todd Gilliland | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | — |
| 22 | 35 | Riley Herbst | 23XI Racing | Toyota | Monster Energy |
| 23 | 38 | Zane Smith | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | Patriot Mobile |
| 24 | 41 | Cole Custer | Haas Factory Team | Chevy | — |
| 25 | 42 | John Hunter Nemechek | Legacy Motor Club | Toyota | Pye-Barker Fire & Safety |
| 26 | 43 | Erik Jones | Legacy Motor Club | Toyota | Dollar Tree |
| 27 | 44 | Joey Gase (i) | NY Racing Team | Chevy | — |
| 28 | 45 | Tyler Reddick | 23XI Racing | Toyota | Chumba Casino |
| 29 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Hyak Motorsports | Chevy | NOS Energy |
| 30 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevy | Ally |
| 31 | 51 | Cody Ware | Rick Ware Racing | Chevy | Rocket Doctor |
| 32 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | Monster Energy |
| 33 | 60 | Ryan Preece | RFK Racing | Ford | BuildSubmarines.com |
| 34 | 62 | Casey Mears | Beard Motorsports | Chevy | The Gracie Foundation Chevrolet |
| 35 | 66 | Gray Gaulding (i) | Garage 66 | Ford | — |
| 36 | 71 | Michael McDowell | Spire Motorsports | Chevy | RCA |
| 37 | 77 | Carson Hocevar | Spire Motorsports | Chevy | Spectrum |
| 38 | 78 | Daniel Dye (i) | Live Fast Motorsports | Chevy | Champion Container Corp |
| 39 | 88 | Connor Zilisch | Trackhouse Racing | Chevy | Tootsies Orchid Lounge |
| 40 | 97 | Shane Van Gisbergen | Trackhouse Racing | Chevy | Red Bull |
| (i) = Ineligible for driver championship points • * = Withdrawn from event • 40 entries total. Last updated: October 19, 2026. Race: Sunday, October 25, 2026 • Talladega Superspeedway. | |||||
Is a 40-Car Field Unusual at Talladega Superspeedway?
The 40-car field may be unusual for NASCAR Cup races, but not at Talladega. Races start with up to 40 cars, according to Oval Insider‘s Cup Series standings explainer. The charter system locks in 36 of those spots, and open teams chase the rest, as Beyond the Flag‘s Daytona 500 lineup report explained. Before 2016, the cap stood at 43, according to Sportskeeda‘s explainer on NASCAR field sizes.
Fields vary. Watkins Glen drew only 38 entries this season, according to Beyond the Flag. The August Daytona race drew 41 entries and one car going home, according to NASCAR.com. The Daytona 500 field grew to 41 when Jimmie Johnson received the Open Exemption Provisional, the same Beyond the Flag report said.
The open-team drivers Frontstretch listed for Talladega are Joey Gase in the No. 44, Casey Mears in the No. 62, Gray Gaulding in the No. 66 and Daniel Dye in the No. 78. Mears will make his 499th Cup start. Gaulding will make his second of 2026.
Saturday’s qualifying session sets the order. Talladega follows the two-round superspeedway format, with one timed lap per round, according to Jayski‘s 2026 qualifying procedures primer. The 10 fastest cars from Round 1 advance, and their times reset. Those 10 run again, and their Round 2 speeds fill positions 1 through 10. The rest of the field lines up by Round 1 speed.
Cars split into two groups based on performance metrics, and Group 1, the higher-scoring bunch, goes out first. Each team gets one set of tires. Daytona and Atlanta use the same format, Jayski reported. With 40 cars entered and all starting, the session decides only the starting order.
Chase Favorites Face Talladega Superspeedway Risk
Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano share favorite status at +1100, according to TheSpread.com‘s Michael Cash odds report. Austin Cindric follows at +1400. Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski, Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace sit at +1600. Briscoe won last fall’s race, and Carson Hocevar took the April event by 0.114 seconds after 52 lead changes, Cash reported.
Kyle Larson stands at +2000. He has never won a superspeedway race, according to NASCAR.com‘s Chase report. A flat right-front tire sent Larson into the wall on Lap 283 at Phoenix, and he finished 34th while Reddick won. Reddick’s victory was his sixth of the season and his first of the Chase, Sturniolo reported. Larson still leads Bell by five points. Briscoe trails by 24, Denny Hamlin by 31, Blaney by 40, Logano by 44 and Reddick by 56. Hamlin slid to fourth after a late flat tire and a pit-road speeding penalty left him one lap down.
Sturniolo wrote that one driver’s mistake in the pack could reshuffle those standings. Briscoe, Hamlin, Blaney, Logano and Reddick have all won at Talladega, with Blaney owning three of those victories, he reported. Forty cars put 40 drivers in that draft. Talladega arrives with a 3.5-inch rear spoiler, half the size teams ran in the spring, over 188 laps. Cash reported that Stage 1 now ends on Lap 98 and that stage points count in full, because the restored Chase has no eliminations.
Talladega is the eighth of 10 Chase races. Only Martinsville and the Homestead-Miami finale remain after Sunday.
NASCAR Announces Unusual Starting Lineup Decision Before Talladega Race