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Chase Briscoe will start first in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway after winning the pole Saturday with a lap of 186.065 mph, the fastest Cup Series pole speed at the track since 2021, NASCAR.com reported.
It is Chase Briscoe’s first pole of 2026 and the 10th of his career. He won this race last October and goes for a repeat from the same spot he finished a year ago.
Briscoe edges Austin Hill
Briscoe was the second-to-last driver out in the 10-car final round and beat Austin Hill by 0.032 seconds, 51.466 seconds to 51.498. Hill drives the No. 33 for Richard Childress Racing, the ride he took over after Kyle Busch died in May.
“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,” Briscoe said, according to Field Level Media.
Briscoe said the pole matters to his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team.
“Definitely from a pride standpoint there’s a lot that goes into just all the little tiny details that add up,” he said. “Stack enough of those together and just the pride that comes from that from the guys goes a long way, the confidence.”
Starting lineup
Trackhouse Racing teammates Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen start third and fourth. Chris Buescher, Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin and points leader Kyle Larson complete the top 10, according to Racing America.
Several Chase drivers start deep in the field. Joey Logano starts 16th, Chase Elliott 18th, Brad Keselowski 22nd, Bubba Wallace 25th, Carson Hocevar 26th, Ryan Blaney 27th, Austin Cindric 28th and Phoenix winner Tyler Reddick 33rd.
What the pole means at Talladega
Briscoe is third in the Chase, 24 points behind Larson with three races left. He has three wins this season, including two in the Chase at Las Vegas and Charlotte, and Saturday’s pole was his fourth straight top-four start.
The pole has not meant much at Talladega lately. Denny Hamlin is the last polesitter to win there, in October 2020, and the pole winner has won the Cup race at Talladega only twice since 2008, Field Level Media noted. The last 12 Talladega races have produced 12 different winners.
The YellaWood 500 starts at 2 p.m. ET Sunday on NBC. The race is 188 laps, with stages ending on laps 98 and 143.
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