Chase Briscoe notched the Busch Light Pole Award for the 2025 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, July 26.
The event’s starting lineup was determined by a single round qualifying (impound) session, where all entered competitors cycled around Indianapolis Motor Speedway to post the fastest lap through one qualifying lap.
During the qualifying session, Briscoe, who was the 34th-fastest competitor during the event’s lone practice session on Saturday, posted his best qualifying lap at 183.165 mph in 49.136 seconds. Briscoe’s lap was enough for the Mitchell, Indiana, native to claim the top-starting spot for Sunday’s main event at the Greatest Spectacle in Racing for the first time in his career.
With the pole, Briscoe became the first Indiana-born native to claim the Brickyard 400 pole since Ryan Newman made the previous achievement in 2013. It was also his fifth Cup Series pole of the 2025 campaign, his first since Michigan International Speedway in June and the seventh of his career.
Briscoe’s first Brickyard 400 pole also marks his third time claiming a pole position in NASCAR’s crown-jewel events after he qualified on the top-starting spot for this year’s Daytona 500 in February and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.
Briscoe’s 2025 Brickyard 400 pole was also a personal one for the driver of the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops/Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE entry, who grew up with aspirations of racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a fan and labeled the venue as the one to win at above all other racing venues.
Chase Briscoe quote
“[Winning the pole]’s just super cool,” Briscoe, who was greeted with a chorus of cheers from his home crowd, said. “I’m holding back tears, truthfully. This is such a special moment for me. Even hearing the crowd as I got the pole, it was just super cool. Hopefully, can keep it [the No. 19 car] up there tomorrow. That’s the one that we want to win is tomorrow. I got a really fast Bass Pro Shops Toyota and hopefully now that we start upfront, we can keep it up there.”
While celebrating the pole award with his son, Brooks Wayne, Briscoe took a moment to deeply reflect on his childhood memories that inspired him to become a racer as a fan from Indiana.
“[This place is special] Just being from, literally, 70 miles down the road and coming here as a kid,” Briscoe added. “As you drive out the tunnel in [Turns] 1 and 2, there’s a brick building and that’s where I got my first-ever uniform and just dreaming of being able to come to this place and sitting in the same grandstands, all the fans are. I was dreaming of being on the other side of the fence and now to be able to do that, it’s just unbelievable.”
Briscoe’s closest challenger for the pole position was teammate Denny Hamlin, the latter of whom was the fastest competitor during Saturday’s lone practice session. During Hamlin’s qualifying run, however, Hamlin got loose entering Turn 2 and made contact with the outside wall before he proceeded to spin and hit the inside wall head-on. As a result, Hamlin, who is searching for his first Brickyard 400 victory, will start Sunday’s event at the tail end of the field in 39th place.
Bubba Wallace, who was the 14th-fastest competitor in practice, will start alongside Briscoe on the front row after he posted his best qualifying lap at 183.117 mph in 49.149 seconds. As a result, Wallace will start on the front row for a Cup Series event for the first time since doing so at Circuit of the Americas in March.
Erik Jones will start in third place with his best qualifying lap occurring at 182.749 mph in 49.248 seconds. He will share the second row with Tyler Reddick, Wallace’s teammate at 23XI Racing, as the latter qualified at 182.678 mph in 49.267 seconds.
Ty Gibbs, who is competing for the 2025 In-Season Tournament Challenge title, will start in fifth place with his best lap occurring at 182.445 mph in 49.330 seconds. Ty Dillon, Gibbs’ rival for the In-Season Tournament Challenge title, will line up in 26th place on the starting grid with a qualifying lap of 179.817 mph in 50.051 seconds.
Rounding out the top 10 of the starting lineup are William Byron, Chris Buescher, Carson Hocevar, AJ Allmendinger and Austin Cindric, respectively.
With 39 competitors vying for 39 starting spots, all of the entered competitors made the event.
Qualifying position, best speed, best time:
1. Chase Briscoe, 183.165 mph, 49.136 seconds
2. Bubba Wallace, 183.117 mph, 49.149 seconds
3. Erik Jones, 182.749 mph, 49.248 seconds
4. Tyler Reddick, 182.678 mph, 49.267 seconds
5. Ty Gibbs, 182.445 mph, 49.330 seconds
6. William Byron, 182.031 mph, 49.442 seconds
7. Chris Buescher, 182.013 mph, 49.447 seconds
8. Carson Hocevar, 181.837 mph, 49.495 seconds
9. AJ Allmendinger, 181.822 mph, 49.499 seconds
10. Austin Cindric, 181.503 mph, 49.586 seconds
11. Shane van Gisbergen, 181.485 mph, 49.591 seconds
12. Kyle Busch, 181.470 mph, 49.595 seconds
13. Kyle Larson, 181.389 mph, 49.617 seconds
14. Brad Keselowski, 181.346 mph, 49.629 seconds
15. Joey Logano, 181.112 mph, 49.693 seconds
16. Christopher Bell, 180.741 mph, 49.795 seconds
17. Josh Berry, 180.614 mph, 49.830 seconds
18. Noah Gragson, 180.382 mph, 49.894 seconds
19. Todd Gilliland, 180.213 mph, 49.941 seconds
20. Austin Dillon, 180.184 mph, 49.949 seconds
21. Alex Bowman, 180.119 mph, 49.967 seconds
22. Michael McDowell, 180.094 mph, 49.974 seconds
23. Ryan Preece, 180.076 mph, 49.979 seconds
24. Ryan Blaney, 180.029 mph, 49.992 seconds
25. Riley Herbst, 179.957 mph, 50.012 seconds
26. Ty Dillon, 179.817 mph, 50.051 seconds
27. Zane Smith, 179.781 mph, 50.061 seconds
28. Justin Haley, 179.759 mph, 50.067 seconds
29. Cole Custer, 179.684 mph, 50.088 seconds
30. Chase Elliott, 179.591 mph, 50.114 seconds
31. Daniel Suarez, 179.279 mph, 50.201 seconds
32. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 178.891 mph, 50.310 seconds
33. Ross Chastain, 178.809 mph, 50.333 seconds
34. Cody Ware, 177.908 mph, 50.588 seconds
35. Jesse Love, 177.162 mph, 50.801 seconds
36. John Hunter Nemechek, 176.509 mph, 50.989 seconds
37. Josh Bilicki, 164.941 mph, 54.565 seconds
38. Katherine Legge, 157.997 mph, 56.963 seconds
39. Denny Hamlin, 0.00 mph, 0.00 seconds
The 2025 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is set to occur on Sunday, July 27, and air at 2 p.m. ET on TNT.
