Chase Briscoe secured the final Busch Light Pole Award of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season for the series’ Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday, November 7.
The finale’s starting lineup was determined through an on-track qualifying session that consisted of a single-car, single-lap qualifying format. During the session, each of the 40 competitors vying for 40 starting spots cycled around Homestead once to post the fastest lap amongst one another. The competitor who posted the fastest lap earned pole position.
During the session, Briscoe, who was the fastest in practice that occurred on Friday, November 6, utilized his one-lap session to post a lap at 166.687 mph in 32.396 seconds. The lap was enough for the Mitchell, Indiana, native and his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops/Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team to achieve the final pole position of the 2026 Cup season as Briscoe also notched his second top-starting spot of this season.
With the pole, Briscoe notched his 11th Cup career pole for his series’ 216th start, his first since Talladega Superspeedway in mid-October and his first at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Despite not being eligible for the 2026 championship with an 84-point deficit, Briscoe, who is ranked in fourth place in the Chase standings, has one-scheduled event remaining to cap off his second Cup season with Joe Gibbs Racing on a high note in the form of adding another race victory to the 2026 season’s column.
“It’s crazy,” Briscoe said. “Last year having seven poles and this year, qualifying has been a struggle for us. [Me and my team] were just joking. That was our first real pole. We got the pole at Talladega, but this one feels definitely a lot different. I felt like my car was really, really good yesterday in practice. Having pit stall number 1 with our pit crew, everything will definitely be really good for tomorrow. Just have to execute. [I’ll] Try to end the season winning and maybe getting up to second in points. I love this place and it should be a lot of fun.”
Briscoe will share the front row with teammate Denny Hamlin, the latter of whom is one of three Chase contenders who will compete for the 2026 Cup Series title and is at an 70-point disadvantage to achieve his first title. Hamlin, who is a three-time Cup winner at Homestead, posted the second-fastest lap at 166.600 mph in 32.413 seconds as he attempts to achieve his first elusive championship in his 21st consecutive year of Cup competition for Sunday’s finale in Miami.
Tyler Reddick will start in third place and he will share the second row with Kyle Larson, the latter of whom is leading the Chase standings and posted the fourth-fastest lap at 166.600 mph in 32.413 seconds. Larson, who is a two-time Cup winner at Homestead, needs to either secure nine points between the event’s first two stages or finish 28th or better with no stage points to lock up his third career Cup Series championship and second in a row.
Austin Cindric will line up in fifth place and he will share the third row with Christopher Bell, the latter of whom is in the runner-up spot in the Chase standings and who posted the sixth-fastest lap at 165.868 mph in 32.556 seconds. Bell, who won at Homestead in 2023, trails Larson by 67 points as he strives to achieve his first title in his seventh consecutive Cup campaign.
Chase Elliott, William Byron and Daniel Suarez complete the top-10 starting grid, respectively. With the top-10 starting spots being occupied by Chase contenders, the remaining Chasers that include Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs and Ryan Preece will start 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th and 32nd, respectively.
Notably, Justin Haley, who is filling in for the suspended Carson Hocevar, will start in 26th place while Casey Mears and JJ Yeley will start 37th and 38th for their 500th and 400 Cup career starts, respectively. In addition, Brad Keselowski will start at the tail end of the field in 40th place after he wrecked through the frontstretch while posting a lap. Keselowski, who will make his final start with Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing for Sunday’s finale, managed to post a lap at 151.732 mph in 35.589 seconds.
With 40 competitors vying for 40 starting spots, all made the main event.
Homestead – Starting Lineup:
- Chase Briscoe, 166.687 mph, 32.396 seconds
- Denny Hamlin, 166.600 mph, 32.413 seconds
- Tyler Reddick, 166.477 mph, 32.437 seconds
- Kyle Larson, 166.343 mph, 32.463 seconds
- Austin Cindric, 166.021 mph, 32.526 seconds
- Christopher Bell, 165.868 mph, 32.556 seconds
- Chase Elliott, 165.629 mph, 32.603 seconds
- William Byron, 165.593 mph, 32.610 seconds
- Ryan Blaney, 165.391 mph, 32.650 seconds
- Daniel Suarez, 165.304 mph, 32.667 seconds
- Austin Hill, 165.304 mph, 32.667 seconds
- Michael McDowell, 165.082 mph, 32.711 seconds
- Alex Bowman, 165.017 mph, 32.724 seconds
- Josh Berry, 164.906 mph, 32.746 seconds
- Ross Chastain, 164.845 mph, 32.758 seconds
- Corey Heim, 164.820 mph, 32.763 seconds
- Chris Buescher, 164.785 mph, 32.770 seconds
- Bubba Wallace, 164.780 mph, 32.771 seconds
- Joey Logano, 164.770 mph, 32.773 seconds
- Ty Gibbs, 164.704 mph, 32.786 seconds
- Austin Dillon, 164.604 mph, 32.806 seconds
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 164.554 mph, 32.816 seconds
- Connor Zilisch, 164.529 mph, 32.821 seconds
- Erik Jones, 164.434 mph, 32.840 seconds
- Todd Gilliland, 164.319 mph, 32.863 seconds
- Justin Haley, 164.249 mph, 32.877 seconds
- Zane Smith, 164.249 mph, 32.877 seconds
- Cole Custer, 164.199 mph, 32.887 seconds
- AJ Allmendinger, 164.114 mph, 32.904 seconds
- Riley Herbst, 163.741 mph, 32.979 seconds
- Ty Dillon, 163.211 mph, 33.086 seconds
- Ryan Preece, 163.206 mph, 33.087 seconds
- Noah Gragson, 163.191 mph, 33.090 seconds
- Shane van Gisbergen, 163.157 mph, 33.097 seconds
- Cody Ware, 162.660 mph, 33.198 seconds
- John Hunter Nemechek, 162.656 mph, 33.199 seconds
- Casey Mears, 161.570 mph, 33.422 seconds
- JJ Yeley, 160.361 mph, 33.674 seconds
- Chad Finchum, 157.059 mph, 34.382 seconds
- Brad Keselowski, 151.732 mph, 35.589 seconds
*Bold indicates Chase Drivers
The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway is scheduled to ocur on Sunday, November 8, at 3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
