Chase Briscoe Claims Third-Consecutive NASCAR Cup Series Pole Saturday At Michigan
Story By: HOLLY CAIN / NASCAR – BROOKLYN, MI – Chase Briscoe claimed his third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series pole position Saturday morning. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver taking top honors at Michigan International Speedway for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 (2 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Briscoe’s No. 19 JGR Toyota turned a lap of 195.514 mph for his fourth pole of the season – just besting Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch, who will start alongside with a lap of 195.317 in the No. 8 Chevrolet. This equals Busch’s best start of the season (also second at Talladega, Ala.).
Briscoe’s work marks the first time a driver has won pole positions at three consecutive races since Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson did it last April at Richmond, Michigan, and Texas.
“I was surprised truthfully it held on,’’ the 30-year-old Indiana native said of his fast lap. “It was not as easy as I thought it was going to be just holding it wide open. But our Bass Pro Shops has been pretty fast in race trim and I thought we could have been even better.
“It will be nice starting up front and we’ve been able to do that now three weeks in a row but haven’t been able to execute with it, so hopefully third time is a charm and hopefully we can finally get one on Sunday.’’
Briscoe’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin, was third quickest in the No. 11 Toyota and will start alongside the current NASCAR Cup Series points leader, William Byron in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Interestingly, neither of those two championship teams has won on the 2-mile Michigan oval in a decade.
The last win for Hendrick came in 2014 and the last for Gibbs in 2015.
However, Hendrick’s lineup now boasts a three-time Michigan winner in Larson, who scored his career first series victory at the track in 2016 while driving for Chip Ganassi Racing. The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Larson will roll off fifth Sunday alongside another former Michigan winner (2023) Roush Fenway Keselowski’s Chris Buescher.
“I feel fine, that was an unfortunately part failure there,’’ Larson said, assuring he was okay after flipping his car in a World of Outlaws race Friday night.
“Felt good there today and held it wide open in qualifying, as did the whole field.
“Hopefully, we can find a little more turn tomorrow. I think all of us being very similar on speed it will be difficult in traffic so having some turn will be a benefit. That’s our main objective at this point.
“But overall happy to qualify fifth there. That’s honestly a little bit better than I thought we would be. Now we’ll rest up and study and try to be ready for tomorrow.’’
Defending race winner, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick was 12th in qualifying – along with last week’s Nashville race winner, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney suffering a tire problem in practice. Blaney will roll off 13th.
