Just one day after the NASCAR Cup Series saw its sixth canceled oval qualifying session of the 2026 season due to inclement weather, a schedule change has been confirmed for the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
On three occasions this year, NASCAR has opted to move up the start time of races due to the threat of rain. The same decision has been made ahead of Sunday's 367-lap race around the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) egg-shaped Darlington, South Carolina oval.
While the decisions made at Daytona International Speedway, Pocono Raceway, and New Hampshire Motor Speedway all saw the scheduled start times changed by at least an hour, today's race has only been moved up by 10 minutes.
NASCAR changes Darlington start time due to threat of bad weather
It may not make a difference, but at the end of the day, the decision to begin the race at 5:00 p.m. ET, rather than 5:10 p.m. ET, does give NASCAR an added 10 minutes of flexibility, with the threat of rain increasing later in the evening.
23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick is set to start the race on pole after Saturday's qualifying rainout, alongside Spire Motorsports' Daniel Suarez. The qualifying metric set the full starting lineup, although unlike in the would-be qualifying order, which is also based on the metric, the 16 playoff drivers are not all in the top 16.
Sunday's race is notably set to be shown live on USA Network, one week after the Daytona regular season finale was the season's first race to be shown live on NBC. It's the second consecutive broadcast change, but it's the last one on the schedule until late October, when action is set to shift back over to NBC for the final three races of the year. Tune in tonight at 5:00 p.m. ET and catch all of the action from the track "Too Tough To Tame"!
