Briscoe roars to second consecutive Cup Series pole in Nashville

Chase Briscoe scored his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series pole Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway after leading the field to the green flag last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and his third of the season in the No. 19 Toyota.

Briscoe made a pole-winning run of 164.395mph (29.125s).

“I guess it was a good enough lap,” Briscoe said. “Alan Cavanna (PRN) was asking me right before I went out what it takes to run a perfect lap here, and I said I don’t know. I think the best I’ve ever qualified here was like 20th. It was a surprise. I felt like it was a good lap. I definitely felt like I left a little bit on the table, but I felt like it was a smooth, clean lap, and I felt like for sure it was going to be a top-five lap, but it was a surprise that it was as fast as it was.

“Nice to start on the pole two weeks in a row. Hopefully we can do better tomorrow than we did last week, but certainly, this track is very, very track-position-dependent, so to be able to start on the pole is going to be a huge advantage for us. Hopefully we can hold that advantage.”

Briscoe set a new track record with his qualifying run.

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Denny Hamlin qualified second at 164.119mph.

William Byron qualified third (163.374mph), Tyler Reddick fourth (163.368mph) and Ross Chastain fifth (163.357mph). Chastain won at Nashville Superspeedway in 2023 and enters the weekend as the most recent winner in the series.

Brad Keselowski qualified sixth (162.985mph), Christopher Bell seventh (162.929mph), Michael McDowell eighth (162.874mph), Joey Logano – the defending race winner – ninth at 162.669mph and Chris Buescher 10th (162.619 mph).

Chase Elliott qualified 11th, Bubba Wallace 12th and Ryan Blaney qualified 15th. Further back in the field, Austin Cindric managed 16th, Ryan Preece 19th and Josh Berry 20th.

Shane van Gisbergen earned a career-best qualifying effort on a traditional oval at 23rd on the grid. Alex Bowman qualified 24th and Kyle Busch 25th.

Kyle Larson will come from the 28th starting position. Corey Heim will start 34th in an additional entry for 23XI Racing.

NEXT: The Cracker Barrel 400 at 7 p.m. ET Sunday.

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