Chase Briscoe snags 10th Cup career pole at Talladega

Chase Briscoe snatched the Busch Light Pole Award for the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday, October 24.

The event’s starting lineup was determined through a two-round qualifying session. The first session featured 36 competitors battling for 38 starting spots, all of whom cycled once around Daytona to post the fastest lap. At the end of the first session, the top-10 fastest qualifiers advanced to the second and final round, where they contested pole position. 

Briscoe was the fastest qualifier during the first qualifying round at 186.047 mph in 51.471 seconds. After being one of 10 competitors to transfer to the second and qualifying round, he was the last competitor to qualify. During his lap, his single lap stood at 186.065 mph in 51.466 seconds. The lap was enough for the two-time Southern 500 champion from Mitchell, Indiana, and driver of the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops/Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE entry to knock Austin Hill and the latter’s No. 33 United Rentals/Richard Childress Racing’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry off the top of the qualifying charts and achieve the top-starting spot for Sunday’s main event at Talladega.

With the pole, Briscoe, who won seven poles in 2025, notched his first elusive NASCAR Cup Series pole position of the 2026 season, the 10th of his career for his 214th series’ start and first at Talladega. He also notched the eighth pole of the 2026 Cup season for Joe Gibbs Racing as all four of the latter organization’s entries have secured at least one pole this season.

Briscoe is currently ranked in third place in the 2026 Chase standings and trails points leader Kyle Larson by 24 points. Having won at Talladega a year ago in the fall, Briscoe will attempt to both defend his series’ victory and reel in Larson for the points lead with three-scheduled events remaining to contend for his first Cup Series championship.

“It’s definitely been a while [since I won a pole],” Briscoe said. “I think last year we had seven, and this year, we’ve not just been as good of a qualifer as we were last year for whatever reason. It’s a testament to these [No. 19] guys. This is definitely one of those team pole session. There’s not a whole lot I can really do to benefit, but I can certainly screw it up. I just did an amazing job on our Bass Pro Shops, Tracker [Boats] Toyota. Hopefully, we can back up what we did here last year. That’d be pretty special, especially just the timing and everything we’re racing for. I got a fast car, obviously see if we can keep it up there now.”

Briscoe will share the front row with Austin Hill, the latter of whom is making his 24th Cup start of the 2026 season and earned his first front row starting spot for a Cup event. Hill, who was initially in prime position of achieving his first Cup career pole, posted the second-fastest qualifying lap at 185.949 mph in 51.498 seconds.

Connor Zilisch, teammate Shane van Gisbergen and Chris Buescher will start in the top five, respectively. Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin and points leader Kyle Larson, all of whom transferred to the second and final qualifying round along with Briscoe, Hill, Zilisch, van Gisbergen and Buescher, complete the top-10 starting grid.

With six of 16 Chase contenders (Briscoe, Buescher, Bell, Gibbs, Hamlin and Larson) qualifying in the top-10 mark, the remaining Chasers that include Daniel Suarez, Joey Logano, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Ryan Preece, Bubba Wallace, Carson Hocevar, Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric and Tyler Reddick (last weekend’s winner at Phoenix Raceway) will start 13th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th and 33rd, respectively.

With 40 competitors vying for 40 starting spots, all made the main event.

Talladega – Starting Lineup:

1. Chase Briscoe, 186.065 mph, 51.466 seconds
2. Austin Hill, 185.949 mph, 51.498 seconds
3. Connor Zilisch, 185.877 mph, 51.518 seconds
4. Shane van Gisbergen, 185.707 mph, 51.565 seconds
5. Chris Buescher, 185.607 mph, 51.593 seconds
6. Christopher Bell, 185.549 mph, 51.609 seconds
7. Alex Bowman, 185.506 mph, 51.621 seconds
8. Ty Gibbs, 185.301 mph, 51.678 seconds
9. Denny Hamlin, 185.101 mph, 51.734 seconds
10. Kyle Larson, 184.822 mph, 51.812 seconds
11. Cody Ware, 184.858 mph, 51.802 seconds
12. Austin Dillon, 184.847 mph, 51.805 seconds
13. Daniel Suarez, 184.790 mph, 51.821 seconds
14. Riley Herbst, 184.776 mph, 51.825 seconds
15. Ross Chastain, 184.719 mph, 51.841 seconds
16. Joey Logano, 184.694 mph, 51.848 seconds
17. William Byron, 184.683 ph, 51.851 seconds
18. Chase Elliott, 184.644 mph, 51.862 seconds
19. Ryan Preece, 184.644 mph, 51.862 seconds
20. Cole Custer, 184.630 mph, 51.866 seconds
21. Josh Berry, 184.516 mph, 51.898 seconds
22. Brad Keselowski, 184.356 mph, 51.943 seconds
23. Michael McDowell, 184.310 mph, 51.956 seconds
24. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 184.264 mph, 51.969 seconds
25. Bubba Wallace, 184.225 mph, 51.980 seconds
26. Carson Hocevar, 184.211 mph, 51.984 seconds
27. Ryan Blaney, 184.026 mph, 52.036 seconds
28. Austin Cindric, 184.026 mph, 52.036 seconds
29. Erik Jones, 183.889 mph, 52.075 seconds
30. Ty Dillon, 183.850 mph, 52.086 seconds
31. Zane Smith, 183.758 mph, 52.112 seconds
32. John Hunter Nemechek, 183.691 mph, 52.131 seconds
33. Tyler Reddick, 183.638 mph, 52.146 seconds
34. Casey Mears, 183.227 mph, 52.263 seconds
35. Todd Gilliland, 183.224 mph, 52.264 seconds
36. Daniel Dye, 183.010 mph, 52.325 seconds
37. AJ Allmendinger, 182.553 mph, 52.456 seconds
38. Joey Gase, 182.157 mph, 52.570 seconds
39. Noah Gragson, 181.797 mph, 52.674 seconds
40. Gray Gaulding, 181.106 mph, 52.875 seconds

*Bold indicates Chase Drivers

The 2026 YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway is scheduled to occur on Sunday, October 25, at 2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.