NASCAR News: Chase Briscoe wins Cup Series pole at Michigan

Chase Briscoe claimed his third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series pole position Saturday morning. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver taking top honors at Michigan International Speedway for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400.

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, Ala.).

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.

“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 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 teams 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 career 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) Roush Fenway Keselowski’s Chris Buescher.

📹 @DIRTVision @KyleLarsonRacin goes for a wild ride in turn 1 while running second in tonight’s @NosEnergyDrink Feature!

He’s okay. pic.twitter.com/TOIWgnIsRD

— World of Outlaws (@WorldofOutlaws) June 7, 2025

“I feel fine, that was an unfortunately part failure there,’’ Larson said, assuring he was okay 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 – along with last week’s Nashville race winner, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney suffering a tire problem in practice. Blaney will roll off 13th.

CHASE BRISCOE

How do you translate this pole position into another solid run for the No. 19 team tomorrow?

CHASE BRISCOE: “Yeah, that’s a great question. That’s something that we haven’t been able to do so far so yeah, I don’t know. It’s just been a lot of different things. Truthfully, like every week, it’s just been something different. Sometimes it’s me not doing my job on the race track or you know making a mistake on the restart or we’ve had bad pit stops. It’s just been a multitude of things. I don’t know, it’s hard to pinpoint what we really need. The biggest thing is just to maintain our track position start to finish. We’ve been able to start up front which is awesome, right? But to be able to stay up there, (it) just takes a full, complete day and it’s something that we haven’t we’ve been able to do. Hopefully tomorrow will be that day. Truthfully, all three weeks, I would say this weekend has been the least favorite car I’ve had in race trim, but sometimes, that can be a good thing.”

What are you guys doing to come to the track so fast off the truck?

CHASE BRISCOE: “Yeah, I don’t even know where were we in practice, second? Yeah, I thought my car drove really good on the short run. In the long run, I definitely needed a little bit of help. I was behind the No. 45 (Tyler Reddick) and the No. 45 I thought was kind of the class of the field. I was kind of judging myself off him and I feel like normally when you when you do that, like even last week, I knew that Denny (Hamlin) was going to be one of the guys that beat, and (Ryan) Blaney. I definitely feel like our car needs a little bit more, but yeah, our cars have just been really fast. They drive relatively good, and qualifying, I feel like it’s always been a strong suit of mine. Even at SHR (Stewart-Haas Racing), I always felt like we kind of overachieved at times and now, I just finally have the car has the capability to like actually be on the pole so it makes my job a lot easier. It’s been a lot of fun to do three in a row. (I’d) definitely trade all three just for one win on Sunday, but it’s definitely been nice to be able to do that. I feel like we haven’t been able to really show the work from starting on pole because we haven’t still been getting the stage points, so hopefully, tomorrow will be different.”

How big would it be to get a win for Toyota here?

CHASE BRISCOE:  “I mean there’s a lot of pride that comes in winning here in Michigan because of the manufacturer stuff that goes on up here in Detroit and stuff. I feel like every time you come here, especially in my past, right? This is a huge emphasis weekend because you were in the backyard and there’s a lot of pride. This is the only track that I can even think of that you know has manufacturer trophy, right? It’s a big deal to win here from manufacturer standpoint. For us to come in here and be on the pole is obviously a big deal and we definitely want to get a Toyota in victory lane tomorrow.”

Did your qualifying run feel as fast as the speed showed?

CHASE BRISCOE:  “Definitely coming here (Michigan) with the new tire, we thought that we were probably going to run wide open, but you never really know until you get here. And I think Noah (Gragson) was the first car out that ran wide open. So, pretty immediately, I knew that the whole field was going to run wide open. I called Noah right before I got in the car actually and I was like, ‘how easy was it was it? Like a Daytona Talladega style wide open?’ He said, ‘yeah man, it’s easy wide open.’ I did not feel that way. My car was definitely kind of on edge. I was on the verge of lifting a couple times. Christopher (Bell) I thought had me beat, he had to lift off of (turn) four and that was the same spot where I thought I was going to honestly probably hit the fence. So yeah, it was not as easy as I thought it was going to be, but the speeds I think was coming from the corner speeds. We’re running wide open now, so the corners (are) faster and that translates down the straight away. Every time we come here, this is the one place that certainly gets your attention just from a speed standpoint. There’s not a lot of places where we’re over 200 mph, so it it’ll be intense tomorrow for sure.”

What are some of the single-track races that you would like to see doubled up on the season?

CHASE BRISCOE:  “That’s a good question. I almost feel like a lot of the time, like the crowds are definitely way better when we go places once. I don’t know. With Homestead (Miami-Speedway) being the championship race now, I don’t think we need to go there twice, but that would have been a track before as the championship race, I would certainly say that we need to go to twice. The only other one that kind of stands on top as soon as I think about it would be the Charlotte oval. I think that’s just a great race track for this car currently, so that would be another one I would say I would love to go to twice.”

Is there anything from this stretch of intermediate races that can help your approach for tomorrow’s race?

CHASE BRISCOE:  “Michigan is it’s own unique animal. There’s nothing that we go to that’s like this. You know like (at) Charlotte, you can kind of move your way through the field. You can still do that here (Michigan), you just get so spread out here where at Charlotte, you don’t have that as much. I think there’s definitely things that we can learn from all of it, right? Even though (at) Nashville last weekend, that was something that I certainly learned at the end of that stage. I think I was leading with six or seven (laps) to go and I caught (Kyle) Larson, I tried to lap him, and it caused me to go on from first to third and that ultimately lost me even a chance to win the race because that’s when I kind of started bleeding track positions. Now that I’ve been up front more, just trying to understand like how to take control of the race and but actually maintain your track position. That’s something that’s been a challenge I would say for me just mentally. At the No. 14 car, I would have to be so aggressive on restarts and make these crazy high-risk moves where I might gain three or four spots but I might lose seven or eight and I’m still doing that in this car and I don’t have to. My car is good enough now if I’m running sixth or seventh on restart, just try to stay sixth or seventh, and over the course of the run, you’re going to work your way up there. Last week, I was restarted sixth and I tried to make a move and I came out 10th and you know, you just start bleeding track position so I definitely feel like I’ve learned a lot over the last two weeks. Just starting up front, trying to understand kind of how to maintain your track position, so hopefully, I can finally apply that now.”

How confident were you that you can win the pole today?

CHASE BRISCOE:  “I would say this is definitely the least confident I’ve been going into the last three weeks. The last two weeks, at least we went out super late I think we’re the third or fourth last car out, which is typically an advantage. With us all running wide open, it’s not as big an advantage. Truthfully, I knew the Toyotas were going to be really good. I knew the No. 19 car has been good, but I didn’t I did not anticipate getting the pole, especially when we all started running wide open. Like when I saw Noah (Gragson) run wide open, I thought there was no way I would be on the pole. I think it was (Las) Vegas this year, the whole field ran wide open and all of us were kind of like 15th at best. I just figured with how Las Vegas had went, we were probably going to be in the same kind of boat here, but for whatever reason (pause), the Joe Gibbs (Racing) guys have done a really good job of being ultra-aggressive and learning things, so hopefully you know that’ll apply tomorrow.”

Michigan NASCAR Cup Series Starting Lineup