Talladega playoff weekend featured no practice for NASCAR tripleheader
NXTbets Pro | Published On: October 22, 2026
Talladega playoff weekend
Talladega Superspeedway staged a postseason tripleheader with no practice for any of the three national series, creating a compact stretch from Friday through Sunday. The Truck Series opened the action Friday, the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series followed Saturday and the Cup Series capped the weekend Sunday, with each race carrying postseason weight. The weekend was the antepenultimate race for all three divisions in the postseason. With no practice sessions on the schedule, qualifying provided the first competitive track time for each series. The absence of practice left teams with no on-track sessions to gather additional information before qualifying and the races.
Talladega qualifying orders
Qualifying orders had been released for all three series, and the Cup field included Chase drivers and other entries. Casey Mears led the Cup lineup, with Joey Gase, Daniel Dye and Gray Gaulding next in line. Farther back in the order were Austin Dillon, Michael McDowell, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Tyler Reddick. The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series order was headed by Caesar Bacarella, while the Truck Series list started with Norm Benning. The Truck order also included Tony Stewart, Frankie Muniz, Justin Haley, Corey LaJoie, Ben Rhodes, Chandler Smith and Corey Heim. The orders set the starting point for the weekend’s qualifying sessions and races across all three series.
Talladega schedule
The weekend schedule featured quick turnarounds for each series. Truck Series single-truck qualifying was scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Eastern on Friday on FS2, followed by the Truck race later that day at Talladega Superspeedway. The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series had qualifying scheduled for 11 a.m. Eastern Saturday on ESPN Unlimited, with the race to follow that afternoon. Cup Series qualifying was scheduled for 1 p.m. Eastern Saturday on truTV, and the Cup race was scheduled for 12:15 p.m. Eastern Sunday on NBC, HBO Max, MRN and SiriusXM. Saturday included qualifying for both the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and the Cup Series before the final major race day. The broadcasting lineup covered television, streaming and radio. The Truck race came first, the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race followed and the Cup Series closed the weekend, completing the postseason slate without practice sessions.
