Aric Almirola put up the fastest time at Talladega Superspeedway to win the pole for the YellaWood 500. His lap of 181.652 mph put the No. 10 Ford on the point for Sunday’s playoff race (Oct. 1). This is the third straight superspeedway pole for Stewart-Haas Racing.
Joey Logano secured Ford’s fourth consecutive front-row lockout with a speed of 181.642 mph. Chase Briscoe‘s Talladega Nights-themed Ford qualified third at 181.652 mph.
The first non-Ford to see the green flag will be Kyle Larson‘s blue-and-white Chevrolet in fourth, just ahead of Brad Keselowski‘s Blue Oval in fifth.
As he did in Daytona International Speedway, part-time rookie Riley Herbst qualified sixth. Austin Cindric will line up seventh beside last week’s winner William Byron in eighth.
Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney round out the top 10.
Seven of the playoff drivers missed the final round. Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick line up nose-to-tail in 12th and 14th, while Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Martin Truex Jr. start next to each other in 15th and 16th.
Chris Buescher starts 24th with Kyle Busch, who won the spring race at Talladega, in 25th. Ross Chastain posted the slowest lap of the playoff drivers and will line up 32nd.
Carson Hocevar went out on the track but did not complete a lap after the car shut off while the No. 42 got up to speed. With 38 cars entered in the race, there are no DNQs for Sunday’s event.
Cup Series Starting Lineup at Talladega
The YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway will start at 2 p.m. ET on Oct. 1 (Sunday). The second race in the Round of 12 will air on NBC.
Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!