In his first qualifying run competing under the Toyota GAZOO Racing banner, Chase Briscoe has delivered the manufacturer something they’ve been looking for throughout their tenure in the NASCAR Cup Series: a DAYTONA 500 pole.
Briscoe, behind the wheel of the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE for Joe Gibbs Racing, laid down a pair of incredible laps in single-vehicle qualifying from Daytona International Speedway.
With a lap time of 49.249 seconds (equivalent to 182.745mph), Briscoe edged out Austin Cindric and Ryan Preece to capture the pole position for ‘The Great American Race’, marking the Mitchell, Indiana-native’s third career pole at NASCAR’s top level.
It’s the first-ever DAYTONA 500 pole position for Toyota Racing Development, and the second DAYTONA 500 pole position for Joe Gibbs Racing – who last scored the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series season-opener in 1998, 27 years ago.
QUALIFYING RESULTS: 2025 DAYTONA 500 Pole Qualifying
“A great way to start the season. Unbelievable way to start off the year. Unbelievable way to start off with Toyota,” said Chase Briscoe. “To be able to be the guy to deliver them to first anything when they’ve already accomplished so much is pretty good. Man, to think I’m going to start on the front row – or the pole – of ‘The Great American Race’ with ultimately the great American brand of Bass Pro Shops is unbelievable.”
Austin Cindric, the 2022 winner of the DAYTONA 500, has locked up a second-place starting spot for Sunday’s 500-mile contest, laying down a lap time of 49.325 seconds (182.483mph) to edge out Ryan Preece for the second spot.
With a guaranteed starting spot of second, the Team Penske driver has now qualified inside the top six in four of his five attempts at the DAYTONA 500, with the outlier being his series debut in 2021. Cindric puts himself on the front row for the NASCAR Cup Series season-opener for the first time in his career.
“It’s obviously a huge credit to the guys on the No. 2 car, building a really fast race car, a lot of fast Fords in the field. Really cool,” said Austin Cindric. “Starting pole would be better. Chase [Briscoe] 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.”
“All in all, a great box checked for the start of the week,” Cindric added. “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.”
Ryan Preece was third quickest in Wednesday’s DAYTONA 500 pole qualifying session, in his first attempt for RFK Racing. Joey Logano, last year’s polesitter, was fourth, with Josh Berry rounding out the top-five in his first outing for Wood Brothers Racing.
Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Christopher Bell, Ty Dillon, and Kyle Larson rounded out the top-10, and comprised the second and final round of qualifying.
Martin Truex, Jr., behind the wheel of the No. 56 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE for TRICON Garage, and Jimmie Johnson, driving the No. 84 Carvana Toyota Camry XSE for LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, managed to lock into the DAYTONA 500 with speeds good enough for 22nd and 29th
.
Justin Allgaier (33rd), Corey LaJoie (35th), Helio Castroneves (39th), Anthony Alfredo (40th), Chandler Smith (42nd), BJ McLeod (43rd), and JJ Yeley (45th) are the seven Open entries that will have to race their way into the event via their Duel races on Thursday.
The Duels at Daytona will take place on Thursday, February 13 at 7:00 PM ET on FOX Sports 1, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
One Response
Great to see Martin get in the race. Don’t know how Martin feels about his “old” #19, sitting on the pole. Really don’t care tho, about Jimmy Johnson. He should just sit back and run the organization. His time has come and gone. The “youth” movement is taking over. Also, we mis “Race Hub”. Fox did a bad thing!