Chase Briscoe claimed his third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series pole position Saturday morning, with the Joe Gibbs Racing driver taking top honors at Michigan International Speedway for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 (2 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Briscoe’s No. 19 JGR Toyota turned a lap of 195.514 mph for his fourth pole of the season — just besting Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch, who will start alongside with a lap of 195.317 in the No. 8 Chevrolet. This equals Busch’s best start of the season (also second at Talladega Superspeedway).
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Briscoe’s work marks the first time a driver has won pole positions at three consecutive races since Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson did it last April at Richmond, Michigan, and Texas. Briscoe, in his first season with the Gibbs organization, won the pole for the season-opening Daytona 500. In the last three weeks, he’s claimed the Busch Light Pole Award at Charlotte, Nashville and now Michigan.
“I was surprised truthfully it held on,” the 30-year-old Indiana native said of his fast lap. “It was not as easy as I thought it was going to be just holding it wide open. But our Bass Pro Shops Toyota has been pretty fast in race trim and I thought we could have been even better. It will be nice starting up front and we’ve been able to do that now three weeks in a row but haven’t been able to execute with it, so hopefully third time is a charm and hopefully we can finally get one on Sunday.”
Briscoe’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin, was third quickest in the No. 11 Toyota and will start alongside the current NASCAR Cup Series points leader, William Byron in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Interestingly, neither of those two championship organizations has won on the 2-mile Michigan oval in a decade. The last win for Hendrick came in 2014 and the last for Gibbs in 2015.
However, Hendrick’s lineup now boasts a three-time Michigan winner in Larson, who scored his first series victory at the track in 2016 while driving for Chip Ganassi Racing. The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Larson will roll off fifth Sunday alongside another former Michigan winner (2023) RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher.
“I feel fine, that was an unfortunate part failure there,” Larson said, assuring he was OK after flipping his car in a World of Outlaws race Friday night. “Felt good there today and held it wide open in qualifying, as did the whole field. Hopefully, we can find a little more turn tomorrow. I think all of us being very similar on speed, it will be difficult in traffic so having some turn will be a benefit. That’s our main objective at this point.
“But overall happy to qualify fifth there. That’s honestly a little bit better than I thought we would be. Now we’ll rest up and study and try to be ready for tomorrow.”
Defending race winner 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick was 12th in qualifying. Like last week’s Nashville race winner, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, he suffered a tire problem in practice. Blaney will roll off 13th.
Briscoe tops practice, too; tire issues snag three teams
Chase Briscoe led a 1-2 performance by Joe Gibbs Racing drivers in Cup Series practice at Michigan International Speedway.
Briscoe set a best lap of 195.482 mph in his No. 19 JGR Toyota. He was just 0.016 seconds ahead of teammate Christopher Bell’s No. 20 Toyota, which clocked in with a second-fastest speed of 195.397 mph.
Chris Buescher (195.207 mph) was third in the fastest Ford, followed by a pair of Chevrolet drivers — Alex Bowman (194.985) and Austin Dillon (194.974) — who completed the top five.
MORE: Practice results | Weekend schedule
A trio of drivers found trouble with flat tires during practice. Ryan Blaney, last weekend’s winner at Nashville Superspeedway, stopped on the backstretch after a loss of pressure on the left-front tire of his No. 12 Team Penske Ford nearly halfway through Group 2’s 25-minute session. The car was towed back to the garage and Blaney was 26th-fastest in practice.
Tyler Reddick’s No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota sputtered with a flat left-rear tire just moments later, coming to a stop on the Turn 3 apron before he guided the car back to the pits, where his crew went to work on the rear diffuser. Reddick, who won this race a year ago, was seventh-best on the practice list.
Shane van Gisbergen encountered an issue in the final minute of practice for the opening group, slowing his No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet with a flat left-rear tire. Van Gisbergen limped back to pit road and ended up 31st on the speed chart.
Contributing: Staff reports