Briscoe takes final Cup pole of the season at Homestead

Chase Briscoe will lead the field to the green flag for the final NASCAR Cup Series race of the season Sunday afternoon at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

A lap of 166.687 mph (32.396s) was enough for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver to top the board in single-car qualifying. It is Briscoe’s second pole of the season and the 11th of his career. Nine of those poles have come since Briscoe joined the Gibbs camp.

“I thought yesterday my car was really, really good,” said Briscoe. “I thought it did everything I needed it to do outside of one or two things that I thought we could definitely get it to do. Then qualifying was kind of surprising; last night I thought I had way more grip than what we had there.

“I thought my car was good, but it’ll be a totally different race car in the middle of the heat tomorrow. I feel confident that we’ll be able to contend. I wouldn’t sit here and say I’m the dominant car, but I definitely felt like I was a top-three car.”

Briscoe was also fastest in Friday night’s practice session.

Denny Hamlin will join his teammate on the front row. Hamlin clocked in at 166.600 mph.

RELATED: NASCAR clinch scenarios

Tyler Reddick qualified third at 166.477 mph, championship leader Kyle Larson was fourth at 166.343 mph, and Austin Cindric rounded out the top five at 166.021 mph. Christopher Bell qualified sixth at 165.868 mph, and Chase Elliott was seventh at 165.629 mph.

William Byron qualified eighth at 165.593 mph, Ryan Blaney ninth at 165.391 mph, and Daniel Suarez completed the top 10 at 165.304 mph.

Josh Berry placed 14th in his final ride for Wood Brothers Racing, while Justin Haley qualified 26th for Spire Motorsports as the replacement driver for the suspended Carson Hocevar. Further back in the field, Riley Herbst qualified 30th in his final ride with 23XI Racing and John Hunter Nemechek 36th in his final ride with Legacy Motor Club.

In making his 500th career start, Casey Mears qualified 37th.

Brad Keselowski crashed on his qualifying run. Keselowski fought his car through Turns 3 and 4 before it took off, and he hit the wall with the right rear and spun off the corner. Keselowski then hit the inside wall with the driver’s side.

“I was trying to run the bottom lane in [Turns] 3and 4 because the track was so slick and I wanted to see if I could find something down there,” Keselowski said. “I found something; it just wasn’t what I was looking for.”

The defending race winner is Larson. However, that race was run in the spring of 2025 before being Homestead was named the return host for Championship Weekend.

A full field of 40 will take the green flag.

NEXT: Cup Series finale at 3pm ET Sunday.

RESULTS