Chase Briscoe, for the second consecutive weekend, has put his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE at the top of the speed charts in qualifying, winning the pole for Sunday’s Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.
The Mitchell, Indiana-native was one of the 12 drivers that ran a lap time quick enough to shatter the previous track record at Nashville Superspeedway, which was a 29.557-second lap set by Aric Almirola in the racetrack’s inaugural NASCAR Cup Series event in 2021.
Briscoe not only broke the old track record, but shattered it, beating the mark set by his former Stewart-Haas Racing teammate by over four tenths of a second, laying down a pole-winning lap of 29.125 seconds (164.395mph).
“I guess I just pushed my head farther forward, harder coming to the line,” Briscoe told Prime Video’s Marty Snider. “Honestly, I thought I ran a decent lap, I thought I gave a little bit up, I thought there was definitely some more there, but it was just a smooth, clean lap, but sometimes that’s what it takes.”
It’s the second straight pole position for Briscoe, and the fifth of his NASCAR Cup Series career, three of which came while driving the No. 19 for Joe Gibbs Racing.
STARTING LINEUP: 2025 Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville
Denny Hamlin completed a Joe Gibbs Racing sweep of the top two positions for Sunday’s 400-mile contest and provided his fiancée Jordan doesn’t do into labor prior to the green flag at 7:00 PM (Prime Video) on Sunday, the Chesterfield, Virginia-native will start on the front row.
William Byron, who finished runner-up in last weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 to Ross Chastain, will start from third place, with Tyler Reddick and Coca-Cola 600 race-winner Ross Chastain rounding out the top five starters for Sunday’s event.
Brad Keselowski, just one week after securing his first top 10 result of the season in the Coca-Cola 600, will start from sixth on Sunday, with Christopher Bell in seventh, Michael McDowell in eighth, Joey Logano in ninth, and Chris Buescher rounding out the top 10.
Both Chase Elliott (11th) and Bubba Wallace (12th) also broke the track record around the 1.33-mile racetrack.
Other notables that will start outside the top-10 include Ryan Blaney (15th), Austin Cindric (16th), Ryan Preece (19th), Josh Berry (20th), Ty Gibbs (22nd), Alex Bowman (24th), Kyle Busch (25th), Kyle Larson (28th), and Daniel Suarez (32nd).
In 23rd place, Shane Van Gisbergen, who finished inside the top-15 in the Coca-Cola 600 last weekend, earned the best qualifying result for himself on a non-superspeedway oval, which was previously a 28th-place run in time trials.
The NASCAR Cup Series will tackle Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday, June 1, at 7:00 PM ET. Coverage of the event will be on Prime Video, Performance Racing Network (PRN), and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
