Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying from WWT Raceway continued a trend of first this weekend, as NASCAR’s top-level joins the NASCAR Truck Series in Madison, Illinois for the first time ever.
For Chase Briscoe – Stewart-Haas Racing’s newest driver in the NASCAR Cup Series — Saturday marked his first career pole, getting the job done in dominating fashion over Rookie of The Year contender, Austin Cindric.
Briscoe sailed around the 1.25-mile facility with a time of 32.544 seconds (138.274mph), holding an advantage of more than a tenth of a second, similar to the dominant time he posted in the first round.
Cindric – who like the entire Ford Performance camp, has shown immense speed this weekend at WWT Raceway — secured his second career front-row start. Christopher Bell secured a third-place qualifying effort, with Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney rounding out the top five.
Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Aric Almirola, Harrison Burton, and Ross Chastain completed the top-10, with the aforementioned drivers advancing to the final round of qualifying.
Among the heavy-hitters to qualify outside the top-10 include Kurt Busch (11th), Kyle Busch (12th), Martin Truex Jr (13th), Kyle Larson (15th), Chase Elliott (16th), Kevin Harvick (20th), William Byron (24th), Alex Bowman (25th), and Brad Keselowski (30th).
Zane Smith – making his NASCAR Cup Series debut in place of a COVID-positive Chris Buescher — will start 32nd, after making a conservative lap around the 1.25-mile track.
Ben Rhodes – practicing the Kaulig Racing No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro for AJ Allmendinger — and Parker Kligerman failed to post a lap in qualifying, resulting in starting spots of 35th and 26th.
Starting Lineup / Qualifying Results:
Qualifying Results: 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Enjoy Illinois 300
