Chase Briscoe earns first Daytona 500 pole for Toyota
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Chase Briscoe kicked off his tenure with Toyota in a big way by earning the manufacturer its first Daytona 500 pole.
“A great way to start our season. Unbelievable way to start off the year. Unbelievable way to start off with Toyota. To be able to be the guy to deliver them the first anything when they’ve already accomplished so much is pretty cool,” Briscoe said.
Briscoe clocked in a lap of 49.249 seconds in the final round of qualifying Wednesday night to earn his first Daytona 500 pole. It is the third pole of Briscoe’s NASCAR Cup Series career and JGR’s first Daytona 500 pole since 1998. In 1998, Bobby Labonte earned the organization’s first Daytona 500 pole.
“Man, to think I’m going to start on the front row or on the pole of the Great American Race with ultimately the great American brand of Bass Pro Shops is unbelievable,” Briscoe said. “For our 19 group to come here and sit on the pole at the biggest race of the year is pretty special.”
Briscoe is new to JGR’s No. 19 Toyota, succeeding Martin Truex Jr., who locked himself into Sunday’s race — his first since retiring from full-time racing.
Austin Cindric will share the front row with Briscoe, his former NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series teammate and friend. Cindric held the spot in the final round of qualifying, with a time of 49.325 seconds, until Briscoe toppled his time as the final driver to go in the round.
“Chase and I haven’t compared race results in our entire career, just take jabs at each other for qualifying results. This one is going to sting for a while,” Cindric jokingly said. “Congratulations to him and Coach and those guys. Pretty good to start on the front row with one of my good friends. All in all, a great box checked for the start of this week.”
While Cindric won the 2022 Daytona 500, this is his first front row start in the 500.
Ryan Preece (49.335), Joey Logano (49.358), Josh Berry (49.376), Denny Hamlin (49.413), Austin Dillon (49.444), Christopher Bell (49.465), Ty Dillon (49.466) and Kyle Larson (49.522) rounded out the drivers who made the final round of qualifying.
While Briscoe and Cindric are locked in to start 1-2, everyone else will learn their starting spot in Thursday night’s Duels at Daytona. Here are the starting lineups for the Duels.
Duel 1 at Daytona Starting Lineup
- Chase Briscoe
- Ryan Preece
- Josh Berry
- Austin Dillon
- Ty Dillon
- Zane Smith
- Kyle Busch
- Chase Elliott
- Michael McDowell
- A.J. Allmendinger
- William Byron
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Ty Gibbs
- Tyler Reddick
- Bubba Wallace
- Justin Haley
- Justin Allgaier
- Carson Hocevar
- Ross Chastain
- Helio Castroneves
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Chandler Smith
- J.J. Yeley
Duel 2 at Daytona Starting Lineup
- Austin Cindric
- Joey Logano
- Denny Hamlin
- Christopher Bell
- Kyle Larson
- Alex Bowman
- Todd Gilliland
- Brad Keselowski
- Chris Buescher
- Ryan Blaney
- Noah Gragson
- Daniel Suarez
- Riley Herbst
- Jimmie Johnson
- Shane van Gisbergen
- Cole Custer
- Corey LaJoie
- Erik Jones
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Anthony Alfredo
- BJ McLeod
- Cody Ware
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com