NASCAR canceled Cup Series practice and qualifying at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday after rain from Hurricane Isaias prevented cars from taking to the track.
The sessions had been moved forward by two hours in an attempt to avoid the weather. Their cancellation means championship leader Kyle Larson will start the sixth of 10 Chase races from pole, with Chase Briscoe alongside him on the front row.
Performance metric determines Charlotte grid
NASCAR set the lineup through a weighted metric combining each car’s position in the owner standings and its result in the most recent race. The owner standings account for 30% of the calculation, while the latest result supplies the remaining 70%.
Tyler Reddick will start third, followed by Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric. William Byron, Joey Logano, Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott and Carson Hocevar complete the top 10.
Denny Hamlin, second in the championship and 40 points behind Larson, was assigned 12th. Christopher Bell will line up 17th, while Ryan Preece is the lowest-starting Chase contender in 24th.
The weather disruption marks the fourth time in the opening six Chase races that NASCAR has used its metric because qualifying could not take place.
Rain also disrupts NASCAR O’Reilly Series
Hurricane Isaias, the first Atlantic hurricane of the 2026 season, also prevented the NASCAR O’Reilly Series from practicing or qualifying at Charlotte. Its race was postponed until Sunday evening.
The Cup field features 39 entries. Shane van Gisbergen will start 11th ahead of Hamlin, with Chris Buescher, Ty Gibbs and Daniel Suarez occupying positions 13 through 15. Alex Bowman starts 16th, one place ahead of Bell.
At the rear of the field, Connor Zilisch will start 36th, Corey Heim 37th, Gray Gaulding 38th and BJ McLeod 39th. The Cup race remains scheduled to proceed with the lineup established by the metric.
