TALLADEGA, Ala. - With no practice on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule for Talladega, Saturday morning's qualifying session gave drivers their only track time before Sunday's race.
However, Sunday promises to be an entirely different animal, with pack racing reaching three- and four-wide sure to rule the day.
As for how they'll line up to start, William Byron was best of the Hendrick Motorsports group on Saturday and will roll off 16th, two spots ahead of teammate Alex Bowman. Kyle Larson laid down the 25th best lap and Chase Elliott will roll off 30th.
"Going out there and going full speed again, it's been a couple of weeks," Byron said of last week's off weekend. "It's nice to be back in the race car. Had a great Easter weekend, it was nice to have that with the family, but I missed being in the race car, I missed going fast, I missed competing, so I look forward to being back."
The 2.66-mile, mammoth tri-oval in Alabama has been yet another site of success for Hendrick Motorsports. The organization leads the way in Cup Series wins (14), poles (13), top fives (67), top 10s (103) and laps led (3,091). A Hendrick Motorsports driver has gone to victory lane at a drafting track in every year of the Next Gen era, including this year's season-opening DAYTONA 500 won by Byron.
Among the team's current roster, Elliott owns a pair of wins at Talladega while Byron has the best average finish (7.7) at the track in the Next Gen era. Elliott is debuting his Prime Video livery this weekend.
A pair of NASCAR races were set for Saturday afternoon. The ARCA Menards Series was slated to hit the track at 12:30 p.m. with an Xfinity Series event set for 4 p.m. It all leads to the 10th race of the Cup Series season at 3 p.m. on Sunday. The event will air on FOX.
NASCAR starting lineup for Talladega
- Zane Smith, No. 38 52.565
- Kyle Busch, No. 8, 52.697
- Joey Logano, No. 22, 52.7
- Ryan Preece, No. 60, 52.7
- Austin Dillon, No. 3, 52.736
- Chris Buescher, No. 17, 52.761
- Austin Cindric, No. 2, 52.78
- Josh Berry, No. 21, 52.795
- Ryan Blaney, No. 12, 52.833
- Ty Gibbs, No. 54, 52.951
- Christopher Bell, No. 20, 52.927
- Cole Custer, No. 41, 52.941
- Denny Hamlin, No. 11, 52.983
- Michael McDowell, No. 71, 52.991
- Todd Gilliland, No. 34, 52.995
- William Byron, No. 24 Valvoline Chevrolet, 53.028
- Chase Briscoe, No. 19, 53.061
- Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Chevrolet, 53.083
- AJ Allmendinger, No. 16, 53.084
- Bubba Wallace, No. 23, 53.122
- Ty Dillon, No. 10, 53.123
- Brad Keselowski, No. 6, 53.139
- Riley Herbst, No. 35, 53.157
- Daniel Suarez, No. 99, 53.191
- Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, 53.211
- Tyler Reddick, No. 45, 53.222
- Noah Gragson, No. 4, 53.264
- Carson Hocevar, No. 77, 53.298
- John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42, 53.337
- Chase Elliott, No. 9 Prime Video Chevrolet, 53.345
- Anthony Alfredo, No. 62, 53.381
- Ross Chastain, no. 1, 53.399
- Cody Ware, No. 51, 53.417
- Erik Jones, No. 43, 53.503
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47, 53.534
- Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88, 53.538
- Justin Haley, No. 7, 53.563
- BJ McLeod, No. 78, 54.103
- JJ Yeley, No. 44, 55.671
Where is NASCAR racing this weekend?
NASCAR is set for races in the ARCA Menards, Xfinity and Cup Series at Talladega Superspeedway.
What channel is NASCAR on today?
(All times listed in eastern time)
Saturday, April 26
- 12:30 p.m. - ARCA race, FS1
- 4 - Xfinity Series race, CW
Sunday, April 27
- 3 p.m. - Cup Series race, FOX