After NASCAR Cup Series championship favorites Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin stumbled last weekend at Phoenix Raceway, the battle has been blown wide-open to include seven drivers, and Chase Briscoe isn’t wasting a second showing the field he’s a threat.
Piloting the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE for Joe Gibbs Racing, Briscoe topped the leaderboard in both rounds of single-vehicle qualifying from Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday, earning his 10th career pole at NASCAR’s top-level, but his first of the season.
With a strong lap time of 51.466 seconds (186.065mph), Briscoe was able to edge out Austin Hill and the DAYTONA 500 pole-winning Richard Childress Racing team by 0.032 seconds to collect his third pole on a traditional superspeedway, but first at Talladega.
Briscoe enters Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega sitting third-place in NASCAR Cup Series point standings, just 24 markers behind leader Kyle Larson. Now, the Mitchell, Indiana-native is in prime position to earn maximum stage points in a potentially championship-altering race at the 2.66-mile superspeedway.
In second and third place are a pair of drivers, Austin Hill and Connor Zilisch, who earned their best-ever NASCAR Cup Series start. Zilisch will roll off from the second row, alongside his Trackhouse Racing teammate Shane Van Gisbergen, who will start fourth.
Chris Buescher, a former superspeedway winner in the NASCAR Cup Series, will round out the top-five.
To find another driver in contention for this year’s championship, you have to go back to Christopher Bell, who will start Sunday’s event from the sixth position. Alex Bowman and Ty Gibbs will start just behind him in seventh and eighth.
Rounding out the top-10, though, are a pair of title contenders Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson, who will start ninth and 10th.
Cody Ware, piloting the No. 51 Rocket Doctor Chevrolet Camaro for Rick Ware Racing, will start a career-best 11th, after narrowly missing out on advancing to the final round of qualifying. Ware’s previous best qualifying result was 25th earlier this season.
Other Chase-eligible drivers starting outside the top-10 include Daniel Suarez in 13th, Joey Logano in 16th, William Byron in 17th, Chase Elliott in 18th, Ryan Preece in 19th, Bubba Wallace in 25th, Carson Hocevar in 26th, Ryan Blaney in 27th, Austin Cindric in 28th, and Tyler Reddick the lowest of the bunch in 33rd.
The YellaWood 500 will take place Sunday, October 25 at 2:00 PM ET on NBC.
