Briscoe Banks Another Prestigious Pole In Coke 600 Drills

Chase Briscoe celebrates the Busch Pole Award Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. (Peter Casey/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

CONCORD, N.C. – Chase Briscoe has begun making a habit of winning Busch Light Pole Awards for crown-jewel races in the NASCAR Cup Series.

In his first Coca-Cola 600 with Joe Gibbs Racing, Briscoe will lead the NASCAR Cup Series field to green Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway in NASCAR’s longest race.

The Mitchell, Ind., native bested Kyle Larson and managed track characteristic difficulties to capture his second pole of the season and first since the season-opening Daytona 500.

Briscoe ran a lap of 29.532 seconds (182.852 mph) around the 1.5-mile quad-oval, ending up two one hundredths (.02) better than Kyle Larson and three better than William Byron to earn the top grid spot.

“I felt OK out on track. However, our car was kind of everywhere,” said Briscoe. “I felt like I gained a bit in turns one and two, but when I was talking to [crew chief] James Small on the radio coming into pit road, he said I actually gained more in turns three and four.

“It wasn’t the most perfect lap, by any means, but it was good enough.”

A common trend throughout Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions were the difficult track conditions, particularly in the corners. At Charlotte, the turns are narrow and fast, meaning minimal room for error is provided.

If a team does too much with its car, whether with tire pressure or trying to get the most out of a corner, the driver in question can end up with a dismal lap time or a wrecked race car.

This was shown during the second group of practice, with Ross Chastain wrecking hard and having to go to the rear of the field with a backup car for Sunday night’s race.

Out of all the challengers, the 30-year-old Briscoe was able to handle the challenge the best, as he clinched Toyota’s first pole since Christopher Bell did so at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway on March 30.

It’s Briscoe’s fourth career Cup Series pole, and he became the 10th driver overall and first since Jimmie Johnson in 2002 to win the Daytona 500 and Coca-Cola 600 poles in the same year.

“I’m super excited to be getting the results on Saturdays that I feel like we deserve with our Bass Pro Shops Toyota, and obviously this is a great opportunity we have to be able to lead the field to green for 600 miles,” he added. “Looking forward to Sunday and hopefully keeping the car up front.

“The No. 19 car has been really good here and when we came here and ran the Goodyear tire test in March, I learned things and left feeling a lot more confident.”

Joining Briscoe on the front row Sunday will be Kyle Larson, who will attempt his second try at completing the Memorial Day Double by running the 109th Indianapolis 500 early Sunday afternoon prior to the Coca-Cola 600. Larson will start 19th in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

Rolling off third for the ‘600’ is Larson’s Hendrick teammate William Byron, followed by Chris Buescher and A.J. Allmendinger among the top five.

The next few names are drivers either beginning to heat up or looking to stay hot, as John Hunter Nemechek starts sixth ahead of Ty Gibbs, Noah Gragson, Alex Bowman, and Christopher Bell.

Notably, Saturday’s session led to a sizable shake-up in the starting order. Ten out of the top 16 drivers in the regular season standings will start Sunday 12th or worse, including

Seven-time Cup Series champion and Legacy Motor Club co-owner Jimmie Johnson will make his milestone 700th career Cup start and roll off 17th, becoming the 21st driver to reach the milestone.

Kyle Busch did not turn a lap in practice due to steering issues, but the 2018 winner did qualify 24th.

Teenage sensation Connor Zilisch, who is making his first career Cup Series oval start, qualified 33rd.

However, all eyes will be on Briscoe as he leads the field to green in the 65th Coca-Cola 600.

“We’ve had speed all year long. I just haven’t been able to perform well enough in qualifying on my end to put us in a good position,” said Briscoe. “I finally did that, and hopefully I can do my job in the race now.”

Broadcast coverage of the Coca-Cola 600 airs Sunday at 6 p.m. ET, live on Prime Video, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.