Briscoe Earns Toyota’s Maiden Daytona 500 Pole Position

Chase Briscoe (left) won the pole for the 67th Daytona 500 Wednesday night. (Lesley Ann Miller/Toyota Racing photo)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Chase Briscoe laid down a historic lap for Toyota Wednesday night at Daytona Int’l Speedway during Busch Light Pole Qualifying for the 67th annual Daytona 500.

Driving the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Camry XSE in his first start for Joe Gibbs Racing, Briscoe swept both rounds of time trials en route to the first pole for the Japanese auto manufacturer in the Great American Race.

Briscoe’s lap in the final round of 49.249 seconds (182.745 mph) gave the 30-year-old from Mitchell, Ind., his third career NASCAR Cup Series pole and second at the 2.5-mile Daytona high banks.

“What a great way to start our season. (A Daytona 500 pole) is an unbelievable way to start off the year,” said Briscoe, who previously won the pole for the summer race at the World Center of Racing in 2023.

“Man, to think I’m going to start on the front row or on the pole of the Great American Race with ultimately a great American brand like Bass Pro Shops is unbelievable.”

In Toyota’s 19th attempt at the Daytona 500 dating back to 2007, Briscoe’s effort resulted in a long-awaited pole for NASCAR’s most prestigious race – with the car number to match.

It was also a huge bounce back for Toyota overall in regard to superspeedway qualifying, after the best driver for the marque in ‘500’ time trials a year ago was Erik Jones in 22nd place.

“This is an unbelievable way to start off with Toyota as well. To be able to be the guy to deliver them their first anything, when they've already accomplished so much, is pretty cool,” Briscoe noted. “I can’t thank Coach (Joe) Gibbs enough, along with the entire Joe Gibbs Racing organization.

“The whole off-season everybody kept telling me that (Toyota’s) focus was trying to qualify better at superspeedways. That's something I really struggled at last year as well, so for our (No.) 19 group to come here and sit on the pole at the biggest race of the year is pretty special,” he added. “I really can’t believe it. Super appreciative of this opportunity and, hopefully, we can carry it on now.”

Joining Briscoe on the front row for Sunday’s Daytona 500 is 2022 winner Austin Cindric, whose No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Team Penske posted a final-round time of 49.325 seconds (182.463 mph) to secure the second starting position.

It’s Cindric’s best-ever Daytona 500 qualifying effort and edged RFK Racing’s Ryan Preece for front-row honors by just a hundredth (.01) of a second.

“What a huge credit to the guys on the (No.) 2 team, building a really fast race car among a lot of fast Fords in the field. It’s really cool,” Cindric said on pit road. “Starting (on the) pole would be better, but we’ll of course take this. Chase and I haven't compared race results in our entire careers; we just take jabs at each other (over) qualifying results, so this one is going to sting for a while (laughter).

“It’s pretty good to know I’m starting on the front row of the Daytona 500 with one of my good friends. All in all, a great box checked for the start of this week,” he continued. “I think every single part of this weekend is important to setting yourself up with an opportunity to win the race on Sunday. Qualifying (well) gives you a good pit selection, which obviously helps you control your destiny at the start of the race.

“We’ll try to do the best we can to learn about our car in the Duels, but this is a good start.”

Providing neither one crashes out of their Duel qualifying race Thursday night, or otherwise has to go to a backup car for any reason, Briscoe and Cindric are guaranteed to start first and second when the 67th edition of the Super Bowl of Stock Car Racing goes green Sunday afternoon.

Preece landed third in the No. 60 BuildSubmarines.com Ford, just ahead of last year’s Daytona 500 pole winner and Cindric’s teammate, Joey Logano.

Both Preece (Duel One) and Logano (Duel Two) will roll from the front row of their respective qualifying races, joining Briscoe and Cindric as the rest of the field looks to finalize their Daytona 500 starting spots.

Josh Berry’s fifth-place lap in the iconic Wood Brothers No. 21 gave Ford four of the top five positions in time trials, with three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin going sixth quick after leading the morning practice session.

Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon was seventh as the fastest Chevrolet driver, with Christopher Bell, Ty Dillon, and Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson closing out the top 10 that advanced to the pole shootout.

Front Row Motorsports’ Zane Smith was the first driver who failed to make the transfer out of round one, missing the cut by a thousandth (.001) of a second with a lap of 49.505 seconds (181.800 mph).

TRICON Garage’s Martin Truex Jr. (22nd) and Legacy Motor Club’s Jimmie Johnson (29th) were the two non-chartered drivers who guaranteed themselves starting spots in Sunday’s Daytona 500 based on their qualifying speeds Wednesday night, leaving two spots available out of Thursday’s Duel qualifying races.

On-track action for the NASCAR Cup Series continues Thursday at Daytona Int’l Speedway with the 150-mile Duels at Daytona setting the field for the 67th edition of the Great American Race.

The first Duel is slated for a 7 p.m. ET start, with live coverage on FS1, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.