NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway
Coke Zero Sugar 400
Team Chevy Post-Qualifying Report
August 28, 2026
Chastain Drives Chevrolet to Pole Position for Regular Season Finale at Daytona International Speedway
TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 STARTING LINEUP:
1st – Ross Chastain
3rd – Austin Hill
6th – Shane van Gisbergen
7th – Connor Zilisch
10th – Kyle Larson
- For the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career, Ross Chastain will lead the field to the green flag at Daytona International Speedway. Clocking in a lap of 48.808 seconds at 184.396 mph in the second round of this afternoon’s qualifying, the Florida native topped the leaderboard to earn his third career pole in NASCAR’s top division.
- The pole – Chevrolet’s 55th all-time pole in NASCAR’s premier series at “The World Center of Racing” – was accompanied by a strong showing by the Bowtie brigade with the manufacturer earning half of the top-10 of the starting lineup for tomorrow’s regular season finale. ECR-powered Chevrolet’s earned four of the top-10 qualifying efforts with Chastain leading Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill in third, Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch in the sixth and seventh positions, respectively, with the Hendrick Engine Department-powered Chevrolet of Kyle Larson rounding out the top-10.
Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet – Pole Win Quotes
This is your first pole at Daytona and on a drafting track, in general. Can you kind of talk about what that means to you?
“Yeah, it’s almost indescribable. I think I should probably start with, like, I grasp that it doesn’t have much bearing on knowing what tomorrow is going to bring, but for tonight and today for a new package, for Trackhouse to go and pick the right things for car build to come here and to execute through two rounds, it’s incredible. We’ve been good in one round before, but not the second. So, yeah, it’s very important to note that we chose the right things as a team to come here and execute through qualifying.
I’ll start this with — I do not know what that means for tomorrow. I’m being honest, I have no idea what it means for tomorrow.”
As a Floridian, what does this mean to you?
“Life achievement. I was a kid sitting in the grandstands. We camped outside of turn one, gate 40. For those that remember back in, I don’t know, late 90s, 2000s, early 2000s, it was not the nice, beautiful gate 40 with dry grass that you see now. It was a mud pit. We camped over there, rode our bikes around and had other families that were family and some that were more than family that were such close friends and my buddies that I grew up with.
So, yeah, I mean, from the race pools, like getting the race day paper and drawing names out that they would cut up and hoping you got the pole sitter, that was a big deal. And as I got older, I realized how much little or just less it means, as far as how the car is going to draft. But, still, it’s a big deal. It’s a life achievement that I will never forget. This is a moment I’ll never forget.”
I realize that you’re saying you can’t guess how it’s going to go in the race, but it’s still significant that Trackhouse had all three cars qualify in the top-10. Could you just talk about the team’s effort?
“Yeah, I mean, it’s just incredible because all the cars are bouncing. All the cars are not driving well, and we made our car go faster while not driving well.
I asked on Monday in our competition meeting if we were sure that what we were taking, what I had been told, like are we sure? We don’t know. I know we don’t have wind tunnel data. We don’t have on-track data. But does anybody in the room have anything they’d like to tell me, I’m asking, that they want to raise their hand about? And they went around the room and each really smart person told me ‘no’… here’s my reason why I think this part of the car is right, each of their departments. And I left the room going, okay, I believe you. Like, I just wanted one more sanity check.
It’s great with the season we’ve had. And the seasons, like even over the second-half of last year; to hear them be confident, I could tell they were sincere in what they were saying. And then to translate it to on-track, that’s what we’re looking for. That’s what we’ve been looking for at Trackhouse. It’s a really good feeling.”
With Shane in his precarious spot, what is your strategy in kind of working with him? And are you making him a priority?
“When there’s an opportunity of two cars in front of me, I think everybody in the field knows that I’ll push the 97. I am OEM loyal and specifically 97 loyal. So when there’s opportunity, any momentum I have, any push I have, will go to the 97. The crew chiefs will be talking. You know, there’s little differences, and if we find something air pressure wise or something, the 97 will be the first to know.”
I know we are a long way away from the Clash and the DAYTONA 500, but with this qualifying performance where all three Trackhouse drivers will start in the top-10, do you think that qualifying performance will potentially carry over to the start of next season?
“I don’t know. I mean, you have to be better coming back. This is the first crack at it. For Trackhouse and Chevy, clearly we made the right decisions coming into a new package. We’ve done that before. You know, we’ve seen that early on in packages. So proud of that, that we can continue to do that. We want to be better and we want to continue to stay here.
I think that depending on how we race tomorrow, if we can make the right adjustments going into the race – it’s an impound race, but there’s still major adjustments we can make. In my world, this would not be a major needle mover, but with this car, they are major needle movers.
I don’t know what this will mean for Talladega. I don’t know if this is the package we’ll run at Talladega. I think we’ll see what NASCAR sees. I’ll listen to what NASCAR decides, and then be ready for Talladega.
About General Motors
General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future.
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