Bowman Lands Pole In Bizarre Bristol Qualifying Session

Alex Bowman celebrates the Busch Light Pole at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Wyatt Tinsley/Race Face Digital photo)

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Going out early in Busch Light Pole Qualifying paid dividends for Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman Saturday afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Touring the concrete high banks in 14.912 seconds (128.675 mph) with the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet, Bowman earned his seventh career NASCAR Cup Series pole after being the 10th of 39 cars to take time.

From there, the Arizona native watched as his time held up the rest of the way, giving him the top starting spot for the second straight Bristol Cup Series race after he won the Night Race pole last fall.

“It feels really good,” said Bowman of earning the pole. “Honestly, I’m just excited that it’s looking like we’re going to have a tire management race. I love that aspect of it. It really wasn’t the best lap for me; I might have over-slowed the entrance to (turn) three … and typically this place trends to where the later cars go faster, but it was cool when we went and the scenarios were vastly different than expected.

“Definitely want to dedicate this to (late Hendrick Motorsports communications director) Jon Edwards, because that was such a loss for everyone at HMS on Thursday,” he added. “He was probably my favorite person at HMS. One of the good guys, for sure, and he’s going to be missed a lot.”

What will Sunday’s race bring? Bowman admitted he’s as unsure as anyone else, after cording in practice by many teams seemed to indicate that 500 laps will play out like the same tire-saving race that the field experienced last spring.

“I think all signs point to that,” Bowman said after qualifying. “We started practice with rubber on the track from the Xfinity (Series) cars, and it peeled right up and sawed the tires right off. It’s confusing why that is, when we didn’t do that last fall … but we’ll all find out together on Sunday afternoon.”

Joining Bowman on the front row Sunday is Hyak Motorsports’ Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who was fastest in practice prior to qualifying and turned in a time of 14.925 seconds (128.563 mph) with the No. 47 SUNNYD Chevrolet.

Bowman’s teammate Kyle Larson rolls third alongside defending Bristol spring winner Denny Hamlin, who is seeking his third straight Cup Series victory Sunday after wins in each of the last two weeks.

Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney qualified fifth and was the fastest Ford, followed by Ty Gibbs, Christopher Bell, A.J. Allmendinger, Carson Hocevar, and Justin Haley.

Las Vegas winner and noted short track ace Josh Berry lines up 11th for the Wood Brothers, with other notables buried deeper in the field including Kyle Busch (15th), Brad Keselowski (16th), Cup Series debutant Jesse Love (19th), Chase Elliott (20th), and Daytona 500 winner William Byron (26th).

Defending and three-time Cup Series champion Joey Logano slapped the wall coming to the green on his qualifying lap, leaving him 38th of the 39 cars in attendance at The Last Great Colosseum.

With only 39 drivers entered, no one failed to qualify for the ninth Cup Series race of the season.

Broadcast coverage of Sunday’s Food City 500 is slated for 3 p.m. ET, live on FS1, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.