CORONADO, Calif. — Although Shane van Gisbergen has strongly maintained that the NASCAR Cup Series’ first visit to Naval Base Coronado presents a challenge for him, the series’ reigning road course king once again proved himself up for the challenge.
The Trackhouse Racing driver won pole position for Sunday’s inaugural Anduril 250 (4 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a 90.809 mph lap around the 3.4-mile, 16-turn Qualcomm Circuit. It was the sixth career Cup Series pole position for the driver of the No. 97 Trackhouse Chevrolet.
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The New Zealander has won the last four races from the lead starting position.
“Amazing to get the first pole here (at San Diego),” Van Gisbergen, 37, said. “Really cool. It’s tough, I’ve said it a couple of times. It’s your first lap of the day, and there’s three, four, five corners you’re probably going through for the first time of the day as your qualifying lap starts. And yeah, I made a meal of it, but I guess the rest of the lap was pretty decent and made the time back.
“My long runs weren’t that great yesterday. The Nos. 5 [Kyle Larson], 33 [Austin Hill] and 54 [Ty Gibbs] were faster than me yesterday, I believe. But my car is better today than yesterday, so who knows. We’re definitely in a good place to start and tomorrow will be a bit of a gamble and a lottery, I think, with the tires. It’s going to be hard for the crew chiefs and strategists to get it right tomorrow, for sure.”
Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar will start in his No. 77 Chevrolet alongside Van Gisbergen on the front row — the best road course qualifying effort in the 23-year-old’s young Cup Series career — and it gives Chevy its third front row grid sweep of the season.
Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney and fellow Ford driver Zane Smith of Front Row Motorsports will start from the second row, with Todd Gilliland, Smith’s teammate, and Spire Motorsports’ Daniel Suárez starting together from Row 3. Roush Fenway Racing’s Ryan Preece and Trackhouse Racing’s Connor Zilisch will start seventh and eighth.
The last seven road-course races have been won from the front row, and 22 of the 28 Next Gen-era road-course events have been won from the top eight positions on the grid.
It’s a promising start for the 2024 series champion Blaney, who has not claimed a top-five road-course finish in the Next Gen car.
“I’ve said it before, I’m an average road racer, I don’t think I excel at this stuff very often, but I work hard to get better, and I thought we had an OK day yesterday [in practice],” Blaney said. “Had a good lap. Didn’t know I had it until that final chicane, but good overall effort and felt really good after the 12 boys worked on it overnight. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. It’s going to be a heck of a race. Tire degradation is going to be massive, so going to be who can manage rears [tires] better. Just a cool event, cool to be out here.
“You plan as much as you can, but sometimes you’re going to have to audible in the race and understand where you’re at and what you want to do and then see what the tire wear is like tomorrow. That’s the fun part about these new things. This whole weekend has been super cool to be here on the base. I appreciate them having us. The fans have been amazing the whole weekend, and it should be a great day tomorrow for sure. As far as racing goes, I don’t know. Manage rear tires and don’t hit any concrete. I hope I can do those two things, and we might have a shot.”
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Cup Series points leader Tyler Reddick spun and brushed the wall on his second qualifying lap, but the driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota was 17th fastest on his opening run around the course. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin — who comes to the weekend on a three-race winning streak and trails Reddick by only 19 points in the standings — will roll off 25th in the No. 11 JGR Toyota.
His teammate, Christopher Bell, who is nursing a broken wrist from an accident two weeks ago at Michigan International Speedway, qualified 37th. He said that this weekend will be a game-time decision on whether he starts the race and then hands the car over to Brent Crews to finish. Crews has been fast at San Diego, claiming the pole position for Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race on a lap faster than Van Gisbergen’s pole-winning speed.
Hendrick Motorsports owns the best road-course record — leading the series in poles, wins, top-five and top-10 finishes in the last 15 road-course races. However, their best qualifying driver on Saturday was reigning series champion Kyle Larson, who will roll off 14th on the 39-car grid.
Trackhouse Racing’s Project 91 driver, former Formula One racer Kevin Magnussen, qualified 21st in his NASCAR debut, driving the No. 91 Chevy. Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, who is competing in his hometown, will start 37th in the No. 84 Legacy Motor Club Toyota.