TALLADEGA, Ala. – Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe will start from the same position he finished last year’s Talladega Superspeedway fall classic – in front.
The 31-year-old driver of the No. 19 JGR Toyota earned the pole position for Sunday’s YellaWood 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a fast lap of 186.065 mph around the famed 2.66-mile high banks during Saturday time trials. The mark is the fastest NASCAR Cup Series pole speed at the track – by a significant 3 mph – since 2021.
MORE: Starting lineup | At-track photos: Talladega
It is Briscoe’s first pole of 2026 and comes at a crucial point in the season for the Indiana native, who sits third in the championship standings, only 24 points behind leader Kyle Larson, with three races remaining in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 to decide the season trophy.
Briscoe was next-to-last to take the track among the 10 second-round qualifiers – and he ultimately bested Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill’s No. 33 Chevrolet by a slight 0.032 seconds.
“Obviously have a great starting spot tomorrow for our Toyota, but who knows what to expect with the handling and obviously that first run is all about fuel saving, so we’ll probably have our blinker on pretty early to not have the lead, but we’ll see how it plays out,” said Briscoe, who has three victories this season, including two of the last three races coming to Talladega (at Las Vegas and Charlotte).
It’s Briscoe’s fourth straight top-four starting position, and claiming pole position this weekend is particularly important for his team’s morale.
“Definitely from a pride standpoint there’s a lot that goes into just all the little tiny details that add up,” said Briscoe, who earned seven poles last year and now has 10 in his career. “Stack enough of those together and just the pride that comes from that from the guys goes a long way, the confidence.”
Trackhouse Racing teammates Connor Zilisch and Shane Van Gisbergen will share the second row – third and fourth fastest in time trials. Championship-eligible drivers Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Chris Buescher and JGR’s Christopher Bell will start sixth and seventh.
Hendrick’s Alex Bowman and Chase drivers JGR teammates Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin and Hendrick’s Larson rounded out the top 10.
Ten of the 16 Chase drivers will start outside the top 10, with some faring fine and others slated for an uphill climb. The best of those was Spire Motorsports’ Daniel Suárez, wo will start 13th. Three-time Cup champion and three-time Talladega winner Joey Logano will start 16th, ahead of fellow Chase competitors William Byron (17th), Chase Elliott (18th) and Ryan Preece (19th).
Bubba Wallace will start 25th ahead of Carson Hocevar (26th), Ryan Blaney (27th) and Austin Cindric (28th).
Tyler Reddick, winner of last week’s race at Phoenix Raceway, was the slowest qualifier of those in The Chase and will start 33rd in the 40-car field on Sunday.
Larson enters with a five-point lead in The Chase over Bell. Briscoe (minus-24), Hamlin (minus-31), Blaney (minus-40), Logano (minus-44) and Reddick (minus-56) each enter in the thick of the championship hunt with three races remaining.
There have been 12 different race winners in the last 12 Talladega races. Hamlin is the last polesitter to win the race – doing so in October 2020. Since 2008, the pole winner has gone on to win in the NASCAR Cup Series at the track only twice.
Contributing: Staff report