By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Chase Briscoe wasted zero time making his presence known at Joe Gibbs Racing. Sweetened by the fact that he’s going to lead the field to the green flag in Sunday’s Daytona 500.
The newest driver from the four-car organization set the quickest time of 49.249 seconds during second round qualifying to lock up his third career Busch Light Pole Award Wednesday. It’s Briscoe’s first pole since the summer race at Daytona two years ago and Toyota’s first-ever pole in Daytona 500 history.
It also marks the first Daytona 500 pole for JGR since Bobby Labonte accomplished the feat in 1998.
Dating back to last year, it’s also the No. 19 team’s second straight pole as momentum is at an all-time high, knowing Briscoe is one of only two drivers that’ll know where they’re starting in “The Great American Race.”
“A great way to start our season. Unbelievable way to start off the year,” said Briscoe after his pole run. “Unbelievable way to start off with Toyota. To be able to be the guy to deliver them the first anything when they’ve already accomplished so much is pretty cool.
“To think I’m going to start on the front row or on the pole of The Great American Race with ultimately the great American brand of Bass Pro Shops is unbelievable,” Briscoe continued.
“Can’t thank Coach Gibbs enough, the entire Joe Gibbs Racing organization. The whole off-season everybody kept telling me the focus was trying to qualify better at superspeedways. That’s something I really struggled at last year. For our 19 group to come here and sit on the pole at the biggest race of the year is pretty special.
“Can’t believe it. Super appreciative of this opportunity with Bass Pro, Toyota, Joe Gibbs. Unbelievable way to start our season. Hopefully we can carry it on now.”
Starting alongside Briscoe is a familiar pal on the grid as his former teammate in both Trucks and Xfinity Austin Cindric will roll off second after setting a time of 49.325 seconds.
The former Daytona 500 champion has now qualified outside pole eight times, all of them happening since his only pole at Fontana in 2022.
“It’s obviously a huge credit to the guys on the 2 car, building a really fast race car, a lot of fast Fords in the field. Really cool,” said Cindric.
“Starting pole would be better. Chase and I haven’t compared race results in our entire career, just take jabs at each other for qualifying results. This one is going to sting for a while.
“Congratulations to him and Coach (Joe Gibbs) and those guys. Pretty good to start on the front row with one of my good friends.
“All in all, a great box checked for the start of this week. I think every single part of this weekend is important to setting up with an opportunity to win this race on Sunday. That’s another one, pit selection, obviously controlling your destiny at the start of the race.
“We’ll try to do the best we can to learn about our car tomorrow night. Yeah, good start.”
Outside of the front row, two more men can relax heading into the Duels as both Martin Truex, Jr. and Jimmie Johnson have locked themselves into the Daytona 500 by virtue of being the top-two fastest open cars.
Four-time Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves was 39th quickest in qualifying. Thus, we won’t know if the field will consist of 40 or 41 cars, and it’ll depend on if Castroneves ends up being the top-finishing open car in Duel Race No. 1.
Live coverage of Thursday’s Duel Races at Daytona begins at 7:00 p.m. ET on FS1 as we’ll determine the rest of the starting grid for Sunday’s race.
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