Chase Briscoe is no longer in contention for the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series championship, but there’s absolutely nothing stopping the driver of the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE from getting his Joe Gibbs Racing team back in Victory Lane one more time this season.
The Mitchell, Indiana-native blasted to the top of the speed charts in single-vehicle qualifying from the fan-favorite racetrack in Miami, Florida on Saturday, laying down a time of 32.396 seconds (166.687mph) to claim his second pole position of 2026, and the 11th of his NASCAR Cup Series career.
“Our car was really good yesterday in practice, too, so we just have a really good Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Toyota, and it’s crazy, you know, last year having seven poles and this year qualifying has been a struggle for us,” Briscoe said. “We were just joking; that’s our first real one – we got the pole at Talladega, but this one feels definitely a lot different.”
“It felt like my car was really, really good yesterday in practice and having pit stall No. 1 with our pit crew and everything will definitely be really good for tomorrow; we just have to execute. So, yeah, try to end this season winning and try to get up to second in points.”
Denny Hamlin, a teammate to Briscoe and one of two representatives from Joe Gibbs Racing that are still (albeit barely) mathematically eligible to win the NASCAR Cup Series title, will roll from the outside of the front row on Sunday, after coming up 17 one-thousandths of a second short of winning the pole position.
Hamlin, driving the No. 11 Progressive Insurance Toyota, enters Sunday’s event sitting third in NASCAR Cup Series points, 70 markers behind Kyle Larson. In order to even have a chance at hoisting a championship trophy, Hamlin would need to pick up 16 stage points (equivalent to finishing third in both stages).
Tyler Reddick will start from the third position, with championship leader Kyle Larson rolling from fourth. The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion just needs to score nine points to lock up his third title, which he could realistically do by finishing second in the opening stage.
Austin Cindric laid down a solid lap in qualifying on Saturday and will round out the top-five. Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, William Byron, Ryan Blaney, and Daniel Suarez complete the top 10.
Austin Hill, driving the No. 33 Chevrolet Camaro for Richard Childress Racing, posted a fantastic qualifying run on Saturday too and will start 11th. It is Hill’s best NASCAR Cup Series start on a non-superspeedway oval.
Other drivers in the Chase, starting outside the top-10, include Chris Buescher in 17th, Bubba Wallace in 18th, Joey Logano in 19th, Ty Gibbs in 20th, and Ryan Preece in 32nd. Justin Haley, driving the No. 77 Chevrolet Camaro for the suspended Carson Hocevar, will start in 26th.
The NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race will take place on Sunday, November 8 at 3:00 PM ET on NBC.
