Six-Pack: Briscoe Speeds To Latest Cup Pole At Iowa

Chase Briscoe celebrates the Busch Light Pole Award Saturday at Iowa Speedway. (Nigel Kinrade/NKP photo)

NEWTON, Iowa – Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe has made winning NASCAR Cup Series poles this season a routine. At Iowa Speedway on Saturday, that habit didn’t change.

Briscoe captured his sixth pole of the season and the eighth of his career during Busch Light Pole Qualifying at the seven-eighths-mile oval. He sped to a track record lap of 23.004-seconds (136.933 mph) to extend his streak of front-row starts to three straight.

His lap was .498 seconds quicker than William Byron, who joins him on the front row for Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 powered by Ethanol.

“It’s definitely been great on Saturdays for our Bass Pro Shops Toyota; I’d just love to convert that success over to Sundays now. We’ve been fast in a lot of races, but haven’t been able to come out on top just yet,” said Briscoe. “I give credit to [crew chief] James Small and the entire group for doing such a good job on this thing to get it better, because starting off we were not the best car in practice.

“I didn’t think the lap was going to hold in qualifying, to be honest. I figured it would end up sixth or seventh, because I was a little too tight. I felt like I gave up a lot of time in [turns] one and two, but I knew my run through three and four was good,” he added. “I just didn’t think it would be good enough.

“It’s really cool to get another pole, and hopefully we can convert it into another win tomorrow.”

Iowa marks the 30-year-old’s 11th time starting inside the top five and his seventh front-row qualifying effort of the season. When asked if a change in approach occurred, Briscoe said it’s been a mentality tweak for him, but no real changes in procedure.

“I’m just doing the same things. It’s about going in and trying to drive it as hard as I can, and if it sticks, great … but if it doesn’t, oh well,” he said. “The car’s potential is just so much greater than what I’ve run in the past at the Cup Series level, and being in really fast race cars allows you to put up really fast lap times.

“It’s been a lot of fun to see the progression of our group. The beginning part of the season, I was not qualifying well and was under-driving the car. I finally told James, ‘Just let me go drive the crap out of it and see what happens,’ and I’ve been doing that and getting the results now because of it.”

On Saturday the midwestern short track required commitment to find pace, but also forced drivers to find a balance between aggression and conservation.

With older pavement on the outside and fresher surface on the inside in the corners, teams had to find ways to make speed without overstepping. Byron nearly found enough pace, but couldn’t quite best Briscoe for top honors.

“That [No.] 19 team, they’ve got it figured out in qualifying right now,” admitted Byron. “I thought our car was good in race trim, and we were decent in qualifying, but it’s hard to feel the track well getting across the bumps and everything. I didn’t have a great first lap and tried to improve everything for the second lap and get more comfortable.

“We had some brake issues in practice that we worked through and got that better, so I’m proud of my team for that also, and now we just want to be one spot better when it counts on Sunday.”

Joining Briscoe and Byron near the front Sunday are Kyle Larson, Austin Cindric, and Brad Keselowski among the top five. Defending Iowa winner Ryan Blaney rolls off sixth, followed by Carson Hocevar, Chase Elliott, A.J. Allmendinger and Justin Haley.

Haley’s top-10 start is his best since Arizona’s Phoenix Raceway back in March.

Tyler Reddick, who was sixth in practice, comes from deeper in the field after a rough qualifying lap in 22nd place. Ross Chastain will look to do the same in the 28th starting spot.

Legacy Motor Club’s John Hunter Nemechek makes his 100th Cup Series start at Iowa and starts 29th.

Kyle Busch, who was 17th in practice, will begin his quest for a drought-busting victory from the rear after a heavy crash in turn one. He did not attempt qualifying and will go to a backup car.

Coverage of the Iowa Corn 350 powered by Ethanol begins Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.