CONCORD, N.C.–Chase Briscoe proved that practice does make perfect — or close enough to perfect, in his estimation.
Benefiting from experience gained during a Goodyear tire test on March 18-19 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Briscoe put his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on the pole for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 (6 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Briscoe toured the challenging 1.5-mile intermediate track in 29.532 seconds (182.852 mph) during Saturday’s time trials to edge Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson (182.729 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.02 seconds.
Larson, of course, hopes to complete the Indianapolis 500 before taking the green flag from the front row at Charlotte.
The Busch Light Pole Award is Briscoe’s first at Charlotte, his second of the season and fourth of his career. It’s also his second pole of the season for a Crown Jewel race, following his top qualifying effort for the season-opening Daytona 500.
It was also a dramatic improvement in Briscoe’s average starting position of 15.8 this season, before Saturday’s pole-winning run is factored in.
“It was not the most perfect lap, by any means, but it was good enough,” said Briscoe, who joined the JGR roster this season. “Yeah, I’m super excited to finally get the results on Saturday that I think we deserve.
“This is also a great opportunity to lead the field to green for 600 miles… So I look forward to (Sunday) and see if we can keep it there.”
William Byron, who represented Chevrolet in the tire test, qualified third at 182.642 mph, followed by Chris Buescher (182.063 mph in the fastest Ford) and AJ Allmendinger (181.916 mph). John Hunter Nemechek, Ty Gibbs, Noah Gragson, Alex Bowman and defending race winner Christopher Bell claimed the sixth through 10th positions, respectively, on the starting grid.
Seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson, making his second start of the season and the 700th of his career, qualified 17th at 180.445 mph.
“Fun day of learning,” Johnson said. “Practice, I just kind of took my time getting up to speed, getting reaccustomed to the car and the track. I felt pretty comfortable at the end of practice and getting a feel for things, and then had a few minutes to think about it, and send it in qualifying.
“Qualifying went well. I kept getting stronger and stronger each corner I made. Sadly, I was just a little under-committed for Turns 1 and 2, but had the balance right, or the commitment right for Turns 3 and 4 and had a respectable lap. I do think we have potential in the car and can get up there with John Hunter (Nemechek), but I’m very happy to start kind of mid-pack there and have a good pit road pick as well.”
Ross Chastain blew a tire during practice and backed into the Turn 4 wall. He did not make a qualifying run and will start the Coca-Cola 600 from the rear in a backup car. Chastain was fastest in 10-consecutive-lap average before the accident.
Carson Hocevar, who posted the fastest single lap in final Cup practice on Saturday, spun off Turn 4 during his qualifying run and will start 39th in the 40-car field.
Kyle Busch, who did not turn a lap in practice because of power steering issues, was 24th-fastest in time trials. Busch and Richard Childress Racing announced on Saturday that the two-time Cup champion would continue with the team in 2026.
NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Connor Zilisch qualified 33rd in his return to action after being sidelined by a lower back injury sustained at Talladega in April. Zilisch is competing in a Cup race on an oval for the first time.
–Field Level Media
