Chastain captures Cup Series pole at Daytona

Ross Chastain will not be in the Chase field when the postseason starts, but he will lead the field to the green flag in the final regular-season race at Daytona International Speedway.

Chastain won the pole Friday night in single-car qualifying with a lap of 184.396 mph (48.808s) in the final round. Not only is it the first pole for the Trackhouse Racing driver in the series since 2024, but only the third of his career. It is the second time Chastain has qualified in the top five on a superspeedway.

“For our Wendy’s watermelon Chevy, I’m not sure that we expected that leaving the shop, to be honest,” Chastain said. “You always try to be efficient. You’re trying to have the least amount of drag when coming to Daytona, and then you’re trying to put the most grip in it with this new package. So, hats off to Trackhouse, ECR. To have our issues last week, to come right back and redeem all of us with steam under the hood and to take both poles at Daytona this year with ECR out of the Welcome [N.C.] shop.

“It’s the Busch Light Pole Award, and as the Busch Light driver, this means a lot.”

A former championship contender in 2022, this is the second time in the last three years that Chastain has failed to make the postseason. Chastain and his team were mathematically eliminated from making the Chase field after last weekend’s event at New Hampshire. He is 20th in the standings.

Chris Buescher qualified second to share the front row with Chastain. Buescher’s lap was 184.204 mph.

Austin Hill earned a career-best qualifying effort in third place with a lap of 184.188 mph. It is the second time Hill has qualified in the top 10 in the No. 33 car.

Ryan Preece qualified fourth at 184.121 mph and Riley Herbst qualified fifth at 183.763 mph. Preece is the first driver outside of the Chase grid going into Saturday night’s race (by 31 points).

The driver he is chasing, Shane van Gisbergen, qualified sixth. Van Gisbergen’s lap was 183.602 mph. Connor Zilisch, van Gisbergen’s teammate, qualified seventh at 183.599 mph. It is the third time in the last four races that Zilisch has qualified 11th or better.

Austin Cindric qualified eighth at 183.408 mph. Joey Logano qualified ninth at 183.397 mph and Kyle Larson completed the top 10 at 183.367 mph.

Cindric sits 44 points above Preece going into the race. The final two spots in the Chase will be determined between Cindric, van Gisbergen, Preece, and Brad Keselowski.

Other notables in the Cup Series field were Corey Heim qualifying in 11th position, defending race winner Ryan Blaney qualifying 19th, and Keselowski qualifying 21st. Bubba Wallace, who will clinch his Chase spot with two points, qualified 26th.

Denny Hamlin, the championship point leader, qualified 30th.

There are 41 drivers who qualified for the race. Gray Gaulding, in the No. 66 for Garage 66, was the lone DNQ.

NEXT: The Coke Zero Sugar 400 at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday.

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