After Daytona’s chaotic run at the superspeedway, packed with fuel-saving, pileups, and a last-lap crash before Tyler Reddick drove it home to hand 23XI Racing, Denny Hamlin, and Michael Jordan their first Daytona 500 win, the 38-driver pack is now ready to go to the next mini superspeedway stop, EchoPark Speedway. But rain and lightning have already pulled the plug on Cup Series qualifying on Saturday morning, so the metric will set the grid. Here’s where the field will roll off for the Autotrader 400.
The formula previously relied on four criteria: the car’s rank in owner standings (35%), the driver’s finish in the last race (25%), the car’s finish in the last race (25%), and the driver’s fastest-lap rank (15%). For full-time pairings, the two 25% chunks often merged into one 50% slice. But for 2026, NASCAR trimmed the math. Now it will all come down to the car’s place in owner standings (30%) and the entry’s finish in the last race (70%).
By that yardstick, Reddick seizes pole for Sunday and the first pit box of the season’s second round. If 23XI keeps him in the hunt through the draft at Atlanta, he could go back-to-back and start the year two for two.
Team Penske will get another chance at a superspeedway-style track. Joey Logano, who finished the Daytona race last weekend in P3 and won his Duel, will line up alongside Reddick on the front row. The former Atlanta resident will return to the ground he knows well, and if the calendar keeps its rhythm, his even-year run could start early.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., runner-up in the 500, will start from the third.
On his outside will sit hometown hope Chase Elliott, who came within a turn of stealing Daytona before Herbst tagged the rear of the No. 9 and sent it into the wall, leaving him fourth. But given that he still showed he can slice through traffic on a drafting track and be there when it counts, it might pay off very well at Atlanta. He left Florida without the trophy but with points in hand, two wins on the track, and an average finish of 11.4. He might just be the fan-favorite in Atlanta.
Rounding out the top five is Brad Keselowski, who opened the points season in P5. It is not a bad way to kick off the year, and the former EchoPark winner and last summer’s runner-up understands how to stay in the fight here.
Zane Smith, Chris Buescher, Riley Herbst, Bubba Wallace, and Josh Berry fill out the top ten on the grid.
Casey Mears in the No. 66 Garage 66 Ford will sit this one out after the team pulled the entry due to damage from Daytona Speedweeks.
Meanwhile, open teams JJ Yeley in the No. 44 for NY Racing and BJ McLeod in the No. 78 for Live Fast Motorsports raced their way in. However, the Austin Dillon and BJ McLeod entries failed inspection twice, leading to the ejection of their car chiefs and the loss of pit stall selection.
Brad Keselowski showed he can still wheel it at Daytona, establishing that even a broken femur, one of the worst hits an athlete can take, could not keep him on the sidelines. In fact, on the final lap, he was still in the hunt, attempting to go three-wide with Elliott before Riley Herbst’s move up the track wrecked both his plans and his car, leaving him with a P5 finish. Now, while he is ready for the Atlanta race on Sunday, his planned COTA run on March 1, 2026, hangs in the air, as he is still recovering from his injury, and a road course race requires more strength and leg work than oval races. Hence, Joey Hand is lined up as the relief driver for the No. 6 Ford.
Speaking in the Atlanta media scrum, Keselowski said he is glad to have Hand in the wings, noting he serves as Ford’s reserve for road courses. Hand has raced and won across the globe, even finishing P4 in the Chicago Street race back in 2024 for RFK Racing. That’s why Keselowski called him “a great guy,” adding that “he’s been very helpful.”
Still, with Hand being smaller in build, fitting him into the RFK Racing co-owner’s seat could pose a risk. When Fox Sports reporter Bob Pockrass floated the idea of Keselowski starting the race and then handing over mid-way, the 2012 Cup champ left the door open. “No, it is possible. So we kind of run through all that. and we’ve got a lot of good options with it,” he said, keeping all cards on the table.
The team has already been laying the groundwork, and Keselowski sounds like someone bracing for a game-time call on whether he can go the distance. He admitted, “I’m going to just see how I feel. I’ve got some more stuff, tests next week to get through with medical tests and physical tests, and I’ll probably just see how those go and make a decision on what’s best for the team,” after navigating the G-forces at Atlanta and eyeing more medical checkups.
That leaves the door ajar for a split-duty play, where Keselowski could start the race to bank points and then hand over the wheel to a stand-in, most likely Hand, if Keselowski’s leg refuses to cooperate.
During the off-season, Keselowski broke his right femur in an accident while he was on a trip with his family, out skiing, in December 2025. He was cleared for the Daytona 500, but road courses like COTA demand more from the body. Even during Daytona Speedweeks, he hinted that while he could handle straight-line racing, a full road-course grind might be a different beast. Ahead of the season opener, the RFK Racing owner was seen moving through the garage with a cane, indicating that the road back still has miles left.
After Daytona’s chaotic run at the superspeedway, packed with fuel-saving, pileups, and a last-lap crash before Tyler Reddick drove it home to hand 23XI Racing, Denny Hamlin, and Michael Jordan their first Daytona 500 win, the 38-driver pack is now ready to go to the next mini superspeedway stop, EchoPark Speedway. But rain and lightning have already pulled the plug on Cup Series qualifying on Saturday morning, so the metric will set the grid. Here’s where the field will roll off for the Autotrader 400.
The formula previously relied on four criteria: the car’s rank in owner standings (35%), the driver’s finish in the last race (25%), the car’s finish in the last race (25%), and the driver’s fastest-lap rank (15%). For full-time pairings, the two 25% chunks often merged into one 50% slice. But for 2026, NASCAR trimmed the math. Now it will all come down to the car’s place in owner standings (30%) and the entry’s finish in the last race (70%).
By that yardstick, Reddick seizes pole for Sunday and the first pit box of the season’s second round. If 23XI keeps him in the hunt through the draft at Atlanta, he could go back-to-back and start the year two for two.
Team Penske will get another chance at a superspeedway-style track. Joey Logano, who finished the Daytona race last weekend in P3 and won his Duel, will line up alongside Reddick on the front row. The former Atlanta resident will return to the ground he knows well, and if the calendar keeps its rhythm, his even-year run could start early.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., runner-up in the 500, will start from the third.
On his outside will sit hometown hope Chase Elliott, who came within a turn of stealing Daytona before Herbst tagged the rear of the No. 9 and sent it into the wall, leaving him fourth. But given that he still showed he can slice through traffic on a drafting track and be there when it counts, it might pay off very well at Atlanta. He left Florida without the trophy but with points in hand, two wins on the track, and an average finish of 11.4. He might just be the fan-favorite in Atlanta.
Rounding out the top five is Brad Keselowski, who opened the points season in P5. It is not a bad way to kick off the year, and the former EchoPark winner and last summer’s runner-up understands how to stay in the fight here.
Zane Smith, Chris Buescher, Riley Herbst, Bubba Wallace, and Josh Berry fill out the top ten on the grid.
Casey Mears in the No. 66 Garage 66 Ford will sit this one out after the team pulled the entry due to damage from Daytona Speedweeks.
Meanwhile, open teams JJ Yeley in the No. 44 for NY Racing and BJ McLeod in the No. 78 for Live Fast Motorsports raced their way in. However, the Austin Dillon and BJ McLeod entries failed inspection twice, leading to the ejection of their car chiefs and the loss of pit stall selection.
Joey Logano could break Richard Petty’s 47-year-old record for the most consecutive drafting-track races led this weekend at EchoPark Speedway. After leading laps in the Daytona 500, Logano has now led in 19 straight drafting-track races, dating back to 2023, tying a mark The King set from 1974 to 1979.
Logano now has a clear opportunity to move past Petty and claim sole possession of one of NASCAR’s longest-standing superspeedway records, and considering his and Team Penske’s history of dominance in this style of tracks, it seems that he is poised to break it.
