YellaWood 500 starts at Talladega with Briscoe on pole
NXTbets Pro | Published On: October 25, 2026
Talladega playoff race
The NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway gives the field a key Sunday afternoon stop in the closing stretch of the season. The YellaWood 500 is set for 2 p.m. ET and comes with only three races left in the Cup Series schedule, which puts added weight on every lap. Talladega is a 2.66-mile track, and this one is scheduled for 188 laps. The event will air nationally on NBC, stream on Fubo and carry radio coverage on SiriusXM channel 90, giving fans several ways to follow the playoff race from start to finish.
Talladega also enters the weekend without the usual lead-in of a practice session for Cup Series teams. That left qualifying as the first real on-track benchmark before the green flag. The schedule centered on Saturday, when the field went through a two-round qualifying format that was set for 1 p.m. ET on truTV. With no practice laps to lean on, the session became the main chance for teams to gauge speed and for drivers to lock in a strong starting position. Qualifying produced a front row and a top five before Sunday’s start.
Briscoe pole lap
Chase Briscoe earned the pole for the YellaWood 500 with a lap of 51.466 seconds, giving him the top starting spot for Sunday’s playoff race. Austin Hill followed in second, just 0.032 seconds back. Connor Zilisch qualified third, Shane van Gisbergen took fourth and Chris Buescher rounded out the top five. Briscoe and Hill will lead the field to the green flag, while Zilisch, van Gisbergen and Buescher start near the front.
Starting grid details
The rest of the qualifying sheet adds more context to how the field will line up for a long afternoon at Talladega. Ryan Blaney qualified 28th, while Tyler Reddick ended up 33rd, leaving both drivers further back in the order than the pole sitter and the top five. Those starting spots provide another contrast within the qualifying results. The playoff context and the short time left in the season raise the stakes as the race approaches. The field now moves to the track, where those qualifying positions will be tested once the green flag drops.
