Gibbs Earns First Cup Pole Ahead Of Coca-Cola 600

Ty Gibbs celebrates the Busch Light Pole Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. (Logan Riely/Getty Images for NASCAR photo)

CONCORD, N.C. – Ty Gibbs made sure that his first career NASCAR Cup Series pole came on one of the sport’s most important weekends.

Gibbs snagged the Busch Light Pole Award for the Coca-Cola 600 with a standout lap of 29.355 seconds (183.955 mph) in the second and final knockout round Saturday evening at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

As such, the 21-year-old and his Joe Gibbs Racing-prepared No. 54 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE will have the best starting spot in the house for the longest race on the Cup Series calendar.

In a numeric oddity, Gibbs’ maiden pole came in his 65th start, ahead of the 65th running of the ‘600’.

“I feel like that was a pretty easy, clean lap in the final round,” said Gibbs, who became the second youngest Coca-Cola 600 polesitter in history at 21 years, seven months, and 22 days.

“My car was handling really well in (turns) three and four, with getting to the bottom quickly and having a clean (corner) exit,” he added. “It’s really important that we’ll have track position and the No. 1 pit pick, and hopefully all of that will combine to give us a really great race Sunday night.”

Gibbs has prior Charlotte wins in both the ARCA Menards Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series, but tipped that his first pole coming at one of NASCAR’s crown jewel events was “definitely special.”

“It’s really cool … because I grew up coming to this race and have so many great memories of it,” he explained. “For me, though, the biggest thing is winning a race. We’ve had speed to start and now we want to have speed at the end and finally finish the deal, because we’ve been close a few times.”

Joining the young Gibbs on the front row Sunday night will be Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron, who toured the 1.5-mile CMS quad-oval in 29.415 seconds (183.580 mph) with the No. 24 Liberty University Patriotic Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

It’s Byron’s third time starting on the front row for the Coca-Cola 600. He won the ‘600’ pole in 2019, but is still seeking his first Cup Series win at Charlotte.

Gibbs’ JGR teammates, Christopher Bell and Martin Truex Jr., will share row two of the grid after qualifying third and fourth, respectively. Truex is a two-time winner of NASCAR’s longest race.

Chase Elliott closed the top five after winning the Xfinity Series race earlier in the day.

Sixth through 10th in qualifying were Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, Michael McDowell, and Kyle Larson, who came back to Charlotte from Friday’s Carb Day final practice for the Indianapolis 500 and made it through both rounds of qualifying.

Weather permitting, Larson will start fifth in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing before coming to Charlotte to become the fifth driver to complete Double Duty. He’s the first to attempt the feat since Kurt Busch in 2014.

Notables starting outside the top 10 include 2018 Coca-Cola 600 winner Kyle Busch (15th), 2017 winner Austin Dillon (27th), four-time winner Jimmie Johnson (29th), and 2020 winner Brad Keselowski (30th).

Chris Buescher scrubbed the wall during Cup Series practice and damaged his Ford Mustang Dark Horse enough that he was unable to set a qualifying time. Buescher will start 39th alongside J.J. Yeley, whose NY Racing entry failed inspection three times and was not permitted to make a time trial attempt.

Broadcast coverage of Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 is slated for 6 p.m. ET, live on FOX, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.