Tyler Reddick will start 17th in Sunday's Anduril 250 after keeping the NASCAR Cup Series points lead through the first 16 races of the 2026 season. He went into the weekend with a 19-point edge over Denny Hamlin, who qualified 26th.
The race is set for the all-new Qualcomm Circuit street course at Naval Base Coronado, making the season's 17th points race the first to run on that layout. For Reddick, the starting spot is a small setback compared with the standings, but it still leaves him in front as the series heads into one of its most unusual weekends.
That gap matters because qualifying was single-car, which meant each driver ran alone against the clock rather than in traffic. Reddick's 17th-place lap put him in the middle of the field even though he has led the standings after every race this year, and Hamlin's 26th-place run left his recent surge to a three-race winning streak with a tougher climb from the start.
Reddick has already won on a road course this year at Circuit of the Americas, a reminder that the No. 45 Toyota has the speed to matter on this kind of track. But the weekend still begins with a simple test: protect a slim points lead while starting mid-pack on a new street course, where one clean lap may matter less than what happens once the green flag waves on Sunday.
