Chase Briscoe scores first Daytona pole for Toyota

Chase Briscoe has topped qualifying times for the Daytona 500, locking away an inside front-row start for the famous race, with Austin Cindric starting in second.

The rest of the field will take their qualifying spots from the two Duels tomorrow night, Florida time. Duel 1 will decide the order for the inside line, and Duel 2 will account for the outside.

Briscoe replaced Martin Truex Jnr in the #19 Toyota at Joe Gibbs Racing with Aussie James Small as his crew chief, and he grasped the opportunity to give Toyota its first pole for America’s Great Race.

“They’ve done so much, so to do anything for the first time for Toyota is pretty special,” Briscoe said.

READ HOW SVG IS FEELING AHEAD OF HIS DAYTONA 500 DEBUT

“To be able to do it in my first race is super cool, super special. It means a lot to Toyota. Tyler Gibbs and everybody that came up to me after, you could see in their eyes how much it meant to them. Even for Coach (Joe Gibbs), second-ever Daytona 500 pole. To be able to do that is really cool and really special.

“Yeah, I mean, it is the pole. We’d much rather win the race, but it’s neat regardless. Even this whole off-season, a lot of the emphasis at JGR has been to qualify better at superspeedways. They felt like that was the biggest area where they lacked.

“For them to be able to come here after qualifying 25th average last year, to come here and have three cars in the top 10, to have one on the pole, is just a testament to everybody there, just the amount of effort and prep work they put in.

“Yeah, I’m truthfully the lucky one that got to drive it tonight. Yeah, it’s super special for sure for the first race to be on the pole.

“Truthfully I didn’t really do a whole lot today. Like I said, I was just kind of the lucky one that got to drive the car.

“I mean, still from a confidence standpoint, the team, I did still have to execute a little bit, so I guess it’s good I didn’t screw anything up today. There’s a lot of little things you have to do inside the car to qualify, just hit all your shifts right, leave pit road right. There was stuff from that standpoint.

“I think the confidence that it carries over for the team. Not that there was uncertainty, but it is all new for all of us, right? They’re trying to figure me out, I’m trying to figure them out. For us to be able to start the year, even at Bowman Gray we had a really good speed, we broke in the race, but I feel like we’ve gotten off to a really good start.”

He also said he is now torn about how hard to race the Duel, given the result is meaningless to him, but he said he had to learn the car and how it behaves in traffic, so he’d like to go hard.

Chase Briscoe has won Toyota’s first Daytona 500 pole. Photo Andrew Clarke

Shane van Gisbergen lacked outright speed on his debut in the #88 WeatherTech Camaro and qualified in 30th, but he hopes his car will be better as a race car. All three Trackhouse cars lacked speed in qualifying, but single-lap speed while you are on the track on your own means little for the race.

Truex is making a one-off appearance here and was the fastest of the non-Charter drivers, guaranteeing him a start in the Daytona 500, along with seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, who finished second among the non-Charter drivers.

At least two more non-Charter drivers will qualify through the Duels, and Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves has also secured a start. If he doesn’t qualify through the usual means, he will be the 41st car on the grid.

Daytona 500 NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying results

1. (19) Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 182.745 mph.

2. (2) Austin Cindric, Ford, 182.463 mph.

3. (60) Ryan Preece, Ford, 182.426 mph.

4. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 182.341 mph.

5. (21) Josh Berry, Ford, 182.275 mph.

6. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 182.138 mph.

7. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 182.024 mph.

8. (20) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 181.947 mph.

9. (10) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 181.943 mph.

10. (5) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 181.737 mph.

11. (38) Zane Smith, Ford, 181.800 mph.

12. (48) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 181.796 mph.

13. (8) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 181.792 mph.

14. (34) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 181.690 mph.

15. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 181.679 mph.

16. (6) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 181.653 mph.

17. (71) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 181.558 mph.

18. (17) Chris Buescher, Ford, 181.550 mph.

19. (16) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 181.393 mph.

20. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 181.342 mph.

21. (24) William Byron, Chevrolet, 181.320 mph.

22. (56) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 181.302 mph.

23. (4) Noah Gragson, Ford, 181.232 mph.

24. (54) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 181.105 mph.

25. (99) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 180.934 mph.

26. (45) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 180.926 mph.

27. (35) Riley Herbst #, Toyota, 180.832 mph.

28. (23) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 180.785 mph.

29. (84) Jimmie Johnson, Toyota, 180.785 mph.

30. (88) Shane Van Gisbergen #, Chevrolet, 180.763 mph.

31. (7) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 180.632 mph.

32. (41) Cole Custer, Ford, 180.614 mph.

33. (40) Justin Allgaier(i), Chevrolet, 180.495 mph.

34. (77) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 180.487 mph.

35. (01) Corey LaJoie, Ford, 180.437 mph.

36. (43) Erik Jones, Toyota, 180.317 mph.

37. (1) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 180.011 mph.

38. (42) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 179.910 mph.

39. (91) Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, 179.752 mph.

40. (62) Anthony Alfredo(i), Chevrolet, 179.677 mph.

41. (47) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 179.469 mph.

42. (66) Chandler Smith(i), Ford, 178.745 mph.

43. (78) BJ McLeod, Chevrolet, 177.774 mph.

44. (44) JJ Yeley, Chevrolet, 176.280 mph.

45. (51) Cody Ware, Ford, 173.628 mph. 

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