Chastain soars to Busch Light Pole Award for Daytona regular-season finale

Trackhouse Racing's Ross Chastain earned the Busch Light Pole Award for Saturday's NASCAR Cup Series regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The native Floridian turned a time of 184.396 mph in Round 2, marking his first pole of the 2026 campaign. It's the third of his career. RELATED: Qualifying results | At-track photos RFK Racing's Chris Buescher qualified second, turning a lap of 184.204 mph. Austin Hill (184.118 mph), Ryan Preece (184.121 mph) and Riley Herbst (183.763 mph) completed the top five. Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch, Austin Cindric, Joey Logano and Kyle Larson rounded out the top-10 starters. Cindric and van Gisbergen hold the final two Chase spots over Preece, sitting plus-44 and plus-31, respectively. Brickyard 400 winner Corey Heim will start 11th. Ty Gibbs qualified 14th after a rare second opportunity to turn a lap. During his original lap -- in which he originally placed 21st -- the caution lights came on. Gray Gaulding failed to qualify in the No. 66 Garage 66 Ford. This story will be updated.