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Kyle Busch Earns First Daytona 500 Pole; Chase Briscoe To Join On Front Row

by Hunter Thomas February 11, 2026 0 comments

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – For the first time in his career, Kyle Busch will lead the field to the green flag from the pole for the start of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.

On Wednesday night, Busch set the pace in both rounds of Daytona 500 qualifying. He outran Chase Briscoe by 0.101 seconds in Round 1 and then again by a mere 0.073 seconds in the second and final round. Busch had never started on the pole for The Great American Race, but in his 21^st attempt, he pulled off the feat in the Richard Childress Racing No. 8 zone Jalapeno Lime Chevrolet.

“Certainly, here on Wednesday night, being able to qualify on my first pole for the Daytona 500, that’s pretty special,” Busch said. “I’ve had one other speedway pole down here in Daytona for the summer race. This feels good.

 “Feels really good for RCR as a group. Everybody from ECR, thanks to Bob and his whole team there. Thanks to zone Nicotine Pouches being on board for us. Maybe it was the flames that brought us all the speed and heat we needed for tonight.”

Briscoe, who sat on the pole for the prestigious race in 2025, will start alongside Busch on the front row in second. He finished out last season as a Championship 4 driver in his first season competing for Joe Gibbs Racing. Last year, he finished fourth in the Daytona 500.

“It’s cool for sure to be able to consistently two years in a row now. It’s really a testament to the folks back at JGR. We’ve made so many improvements on our superspeedway program. This race really comes down to, at least in qualifying, attention to detail, just doing every little thing.

“The 19 group has consistently kind of been the best one. That’s really exciting for us. Just a lot of pride in that, right? I know for me, every week when I get in the car, I know I’m in arguably the best car every single week. When we come here and do stuff like we’ve done two years in a row validates that.”

In his first Daytona 500 attempt, 23XI Racing’s Corey Heim locked his team into the race on Sunday after running the fastest lap among the go or go home cars. Heim was the first driver to hit the track in Round 1, and he ended up clocking the seventh fastest time in the No. 67 Robinhood Toyota. In Round 2, he improved to fifth on the speed chart.

“Going out first, no one really knew kind of where we were going to wrap up compared to our practice qualifying times. Pretty similar, maybe a little bit faster. I knew it was going to be really close between — I thought it was going to be the 40 (Allgaier) and 99 (Corey LaJoie) based on looking at the practice speeds and whatnot.”

Joining Heim will be Justin Allgaier, who is piloting the JR Motorsports No. 40 Traveller Whiskey Chevrolet after he ran the 14^th fastest lap in Round 1 of qualifying.

“I thought there would be less stress,” Allgaier said. “I felt like for me the stress actually went up. I think the expectation of last year, what we were able to accomplish, the effort we put in. When you know something, you’re able to do it once, you’re able to kind of understand it, you feel like you’re going to come back in a lot better capacity. We did that.”

The NASCAR Cup Series will now take to the track on Thursday night for the America 250 Florida Duel at Daytona. The two races will set the remaining positions for the Daytona 500 on Sunday. Live coverage of the Duels will broadcast on FS1 at 7 p.m. ET.

Cover Photo Credit: James Gilbert/Getty Images