Briscoe roars to Coke 600 pole with Larson alongside

Chase Briscoe will lead the field to the green flag in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway after earning the pole for the crown jewel event Saturday afternoon.

Briscoe clocked in at 182.852mph (29.532s). It is his first pole at Charlotte, second of the season, and fourth of his Cup Series career.

“It’s pretty wild to be honest,” Briscoe said of winning the pole for the Daytona 500 and now the Coca-Cola 600. “Just thinking back – I never thought I would get to run a single Truck race, not only to be able to now lead the field to two crown jewel events. It is pretty special. Daytona was really, really neat. I don’t know if I quite savored the moment as much because it was absolute chaos on that Sunday, but tomorrow will be really, really special, just being able to take it all on it a little bit more, just knowing what to expect.

“I’m excited. This is a race I’ve watched ever since I was a little kid, and to be able to start on the front row and lead the field to green is cool. Honestly, for me, being such an Indy 500 diehard, it’s pretty neat that the guy that I’m starting beside is racing the Indy 500 on Sunday. It is definitely a cool day for sure.”

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Kyle Larson will join Briscoe on the front row. Larson qualified second at 182.729mph.

William Byron qualified third at 182.642mph, Chris Buescher fourth at 181.916mph, AJ Allmendinger fifth at 181.916mph, John Hunter Nemechek sixth at 181.665mph and Ty Gibbs seventh at 181.531mph.

Noah Gragson qualified eighth at 181.153mph, Alex Bowman ninth at 181.123mph and Christopher Bell 10th at 181.117mph. Bell is the defending winner of the Coca Cola 600, which was rain-shortened last year.

Tyler Reddick qualified 11th. Reddick scraped the wall during his qualifying lap.

Jimmie Johnson qualified 17th for his 700th career start. Denny Hamlin qualified 20th, Ryan Blaney 21st, and Chase Elliott 22nd. Kyle Busch, who did not get on track in practice because of a steering issue, qualified 24th.

Connor Zilisch qualified 33rd for his first Coca Cola 600. It is his first Cup Series start on an oval.

Brad Keselowski qualified 35th. Carson Hocevar qualified 39th after being fastest in practice. Hocevar got loose on his qualifying lap.

Ross Chastain did not make a qualifying lap. He crashed in practice because of a blown tire and his Trackhouse Racing team is working to repair his car for Sunday’s race.

NEXT: The Coca Cola 600 at 6 p.m. ET Sunday.

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