Tyler Reddick has been awarded the pole position for this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series Autotrader 400 at Atlanta’s EchoPark Speedway on Saturday, February 21.
The event’s starting lineup was initially going to be determined through two single-car qualifying rounds. In the first round, each of the 38 competitors entered to bid for 38 starting spots would cycle around Atlanta through a single-timed lap. At the conclusion of the first qualifying round, the top-10 fastest competitors would transfer to the second (final) round and run a single qualifying lap to bid for the pole position.
However, Saturday’s qualifying session was canceled due to rain and a lightning hold. As a result, the lineup was determined using a qualifying metric formula from the NASCAR rulebook. The formula involved evaluating competitors’ results from the most recent event and owner standings. This resulted in Reddick being awarded the first-place starting spot as he is coming off last weekend’s victory in the 68th running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway and is leading the Cup standings.
With the awarded pole, Reddick will attempt to become the sixth competitor in the history of the Cup Series division to win the first of two-scheduled events to commence a new season of racing. The latest occurrence of this feat dates back to 2009, made by the 2003 Cup Series champion, Matt Kenseth.
Reddick will share the front row with Joey Logano, the latter of whom is a two-time Cup winner at Atlanta. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski will start in the top five, respectively. Zane Smith, Chris Buescher, Riley Herbst, Bubba Wallace and Josh Berry complete the top-10 starting spots, respectively.
Starting lineup:
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
The 2026 Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway is scheduled to occur on Sunday, February 22, at 3 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX
