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Toyota has its first pole position for the Daytona 500.
Chase Briscoe posted the fastest lap in both rounds of qualifying Wednesday night and will start first in Sunday’s Daytona 500. Briscoe’s lap of 49.249 seconds and 182.745 MPH was faster than Austin Cindric and Ryan Preece in the all-important second round.
Briscoe will start first in the first Duel qualifying race on Thursday while Cindric will start first in the second Duel.
Briscoe got Toyota’s first pole for the 500 in what will be his first points race for the manufacturer. Briscoe was hired by Joe Gibbs Racing to replace the retiring Martin Truex Jr. Briscoe was available because his previous team, Stewart-Haas Racing, shut down at the end of the 2024 season.
It’s the second Daytona 500 pole for JGR. The team’s first came in 1998 when Bobby Labonte posted the fastest lap while driving a Pontiac.
Truex is still driving a part-time schedule and was one of two drivers to qualify for the Daytona 500 via his qualifying speed on Wednesday night. Both Truex and seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson posted fast enough laps to guarantee they’ll be in the race no matter what happens during the Duel qualifying races.
Forty-five cars are entered for 40 spots in the race. Of those 45, 36 cars are guaranteed a starting spot via NASCAR’s charter system, leaving nine drivers for four spots.
It’s now seven drivers for two (or more) spots with Truex and Johnson posting the best laps of any of the nine open cars. Four-time Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves is also in an open car and, unlike any other driver in an open car, is guaranteed to make the race.
If Castroneves doesn’t qualify for the race via his Duel, he’ll be able to take advantage of a newly-created NASCAR provisional for a driver of significant status. If Castroneves uses the provisional — and he’s the only driver eligible to do so — the Daytona 500 will feature 41 cars.
If either Truex or Johnson are the highest-finishing open cars in their Duel races, then Justin Allgaier is in line to make the race via his qualifying speed. Allgaier is driving a car for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in JR Motorsports’ first attempt to make a Cup Series race.
Thursday night’s Duels begin at 7 p.m. ET. The lineup for both races is below and the highest-finishing open car (denoted with an *) will lock into the Daytona 500.
Duel 1 starting lineup
1. Chase Briscoe
2. Ryan Preece
3. Josh Berry
4. Austin Dillon
5. Ty Dillon
6. Zane Smith
7. Kyle Busch
8. Chase Elliott
9. Michael McDowell
10. AJ Allmendinger
11. William Byron
12. Martin Truex Jr.*
13. Ty Gibbs
14. Tyler Reddick
15. Bubba Wallace
16. Justin Haley
17. Justin Allgaier*
18. Carson Hocevar
19. Ross Chastain
20. Helio Castroneves*
21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
22. Chandler Smith*
23. JJ Yeley*
Duel 2 starting lineup
1. Austin Cindric
2. Joey Logano
3. Denny Hamlin
4. Christopher Bell
5. Kyle Larson
6. Alex Bowman
7. Todd Gilliland
8. Brad Keselowski
9. Chris Buescher
10. Ryan Blaney
11. Noah Gragson
12. Daniel Suarez
13. Riley Herbst
14. Jimmie Johnson*
15. Shane van Gisbergen
16. Cole Custer
17. Corey LaJoie*
18. Erik Jones
19. John Hunter Nemechek
20. Anthony Alfredo*
21. BJ McLeod*
22. Cody Ware
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