Ross Chastain has been mathematically eliminated from the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Chase for The Championship. However, the Trackhouse Racing driver is still pushing hard to secure his first win in over a year.

The Alva, Florida-native will lead the field of 40 NASCAR Cup Series drivers to the green in Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, after laying down a strong lap in the second (and final round of qualifying).

With a lap of 48.808 seconds (194.396mph), Chastain was the fastest qualifier in the history of the seventh-generation racecar at the 2.5-mile superspeedway located in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The increase in speed was an expected byproduct of a tweak to the NASCAR Cup Series’ superspeedway aerodynamic package, which the teams will face for the first time in race conditions when the green flag drops on Saturday.

Chris Buescher of RFK Racing will start from the outside of the front row in Saturday’s 160-lap contest. Austin Hill, the same driver who won the DAYTONA 500 pole in February with the late Kyle Busch, was third. Ryan Preece and Riley Herbst rounded out the top-five.

Shane Van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch, teammates to polesitter Ross Chastain, will roll from the sixth and seventh positions, with Austin Cindric in eighth, Joey Logano in ninth, and Kyle Larson rounding out the top-10.

Other notables include Chase Briscoe (12th), William Byron (13th), Ty Gibbs (14th), Tyler Reddick (17th), Ryan Blaney (19th), Alex Bowman (20th), Chase Elliott (22nd), Daniel Suarez (23rd), Bubba Wallace (26th), Carson Hocevar (28th), Denny Hamlin (30th), Christopher Bell (35th).

With 41 drivers entered in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Daytona, one driver – that being Gray Gaulding in the No. 66 Ford Mustang for Garage 66 – failed to qualify for the event.

The Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona will take place on Saturday, August 29 at 7:30 PM ET on NBC.

PHOTO: Jared Bokanoski