Overview

• NASCAR canceled Cup and Xfinity qualifying due to lightning and set both fields by its performance metric, placing Ryan Blaney on pole and Bowman alongside.
• Bowman holds the final provisional berth 60 points above the cut, while Reddick leads Bowman by 29 points, leaving stage points and finish position as potential tiebreakers if no new winner emerges.
• Roughly 20 drivers are in must‑win territory, including Kyle Busch, Chris Buescher, Ryan Preece, Ty Gibbs and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., heightening expectations for aggressive, incident‑prone racing.
• Team tactics loom large with RFK’s trio each needing a victory, Richard Childress Racing coordinating to aid Busch after Austin Dillon’s Richmond win, and Toyota dynamics influencing help for Gibbs.
• Team Penske enters as a superspeedway force with Blaney and Joey Logano atop betting odds, and in Xfinity, Connor Zilisch will start before handing off to Parker Kligerman at the first caution; no entries were sent home in either series.