Here is the thing about Talladega: at 2.66 miles, NASCAR’s longest oval always throws a completely unpredictable wrench into the championship picture. Now, the national series are heading straight to this massive beast of a track for a pivotal weekend as The Chase presented by Mobil 1 enters its final three races across all three divisions. To make things even tighter, seven Cup drivers are separated by just 56 points right at the very top of The Chase standings.
This marks the third of five straight tripleheader weekends designed to close out the 2026 season. The action gets underway fast, with the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series opening the weekend on Friday. Their race is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET on FS1, with teams getting four total sets of tires—three brand-new sets for the race itself, plus one for qualifying that transfers directly over.
Saturday brings the turn of the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. They hit the track at 3:30 p.m. ET with live coverage on The CW, running on the exact same tire allocation as the trucks: four total sets, splitting three fresh sets for the race and one qualifying set that rolls over.
Then comes the main event on Sunday. The NASCAR Cup Series takes center stage with race day starting at 2 p.m. ET on NBC. The Cup machines step up to a total of seven sets of tires, consisting of six new sets for the race and one qualifying set that transfers over for Sunday's battle.
Keep your eyes locked on the results as they drop, because between the grueling tire allocations, the stage results, and the razor-thin 56-point margin at the top of the standings, this weekend at Talladega is going to change everything.
