Ross Chastain earns first pole of the season at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Ross Chastain earns his first pole of the season for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

This is his first pole of the season and his third NASCAR Cup Series pole overall.

Chastain grew up going to Daytona and now has a Cup Series pole at his home-state track. The pole will not just feel good because of his roots.

Trackhouse Racing needed to showcase some speed as whole and will have their entire team start inside the top ten.

Similarly, RFK Racing also showed out when they needed a boost. Chris Buescher will start alongside Chastain on the front row as he looks to add another summer Daytona win to his resume.

Then, Austin Hill commented on how the revised Cup Series superspeedway package that was brought to Daytona felt the most like an O’Reilly Series car that its ever been and place his RCR No. 33 in third.

Ryan Preece will start fourth. His team has high aspirations to make the Chase as the first driver below the cutline in 17th. He will have to make up more than 31 points on Shane van Gisbergen who starts close behind from sixth.

Sandwiched in between those two is the lone Toyota inside the top ten.

Riley Herbst provided a monster lap in order to make the second round of qualifying. He will make his third start inside the top ten this season from fifth.

Connor Zilisch will start seventh for his highest oval start in the series to date. Then Chase-hopeful Austin Cindric will share the fourth row besides him in eighth.

Finally Joey Logano and Kyle Larson will round out the top ten qualifiers from ninth and tenth.

Notable Entrants

qualifying from a superspeedway is usually as straightforward as a qualifying session can get. Today however, Ty Gibbs had the unusual happen to him.

During his lap, a caution light lit up which caused him to nearly abort his lap. NASCAR deemed this an error on their behalf and allowed Gibbs to go again. He took great advantage of the unique situation and jumped from 21st to 14th after his second run.

His fellow Joe Gibbs Racing teammates were not as fortunate in the session. They opted for handling over raw speed and will start mired in traffic.

Chase Briscoe will start the best of them in 12th. Then Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell start near the rear from 30th and 34th.

A total of five open entrants entered Daytona. Four of which made the Coke Zero Sugar 400. Corey Heim will make his first start since his Brickyard 400 win from 11th.

Then Casey Mears, Daniel Dye, and Joey Gase will round out the field of 40.

A total of 41 drivers entered which meant one driver was sent home. It fell to Gray Gaulding, who attempted to qualify into his first Cup race in a few years, as he missed out by over a tenth and failed to qualify in on speed.

Below is the full starting lineup for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona.

Starting Lineup

1. Ross Chastain: 48.808
2. Chris Buescher: 48.859
3. Austin Hill(i): 48.863
4. Ryan Preece: 48.881
5. Riley Herbst: 48.976
6. Shane van Gisbergen: 49.019
7. Connor Zilisch: 49.020
8. Austin Cindric: 49.071
9. Joey Logano: 49.074
10. Kyle Larson: 49.082
11. Corey Heim(i): 49.101
12. Chase Briscoe: 49.104
13. William Byron: 49.117
14. Ty Gibbs: 49.123
15. Erik Jones: 49.140
16. Cole Custer: 49.144
17. Tyler Reddick: 49.145
18. Michael McDowell: 49.149
19. Ryan Blaney: 49.154
20. Alex Bowman: 49.176
21. Brad Keselowski: 49.204
22. Chase Elliott: 49.232
23. Daniel Suarez: 49.240
24. Josh Berry: 49.282
25. Cody Ware: 49.302
26. Bubba Wallace: 49.330
27. John Hunter Nemechek: 49.335
28. Carson Hocevar: 49.336
29. Austin Dillon: 49.343
30. Denny Hamlin: 49.360
31. Ty Dillon: 49.361
32. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: 49.375
33. Todd Gilliland: 49.388
34. Zane Smith: 49.402
35. Christopher Bell: 49.485
36. AJ Allmendinger: 49.485
37. Noah Gragson: 49.500
38. Casey Mears: 49.520
39. Daniel Dye(i): 49.550
40. Joey Gase(i): 49.933

Failed to qualify: Gray Gaulding(i): 50.058

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