NASCAR: Elliott earns Busch Light Pole at Road America

Nearing the final buzzer, Chase Elliott edged out Chase Briscoe on his final lap of qualifying to earn the Busch Light Pole Award for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Road America (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Early on, Briscoe had the hot hand, setting the tone in both of Saturday’s sessions and seemingly locking down the first starting position with a blistering 134.465-second run around the circuit. But with time winding down, road-course ace and defending race winner Elliott had the last say, squeezing past the No. 14 on the leaderboard by just 0.038 seconds. Elliott won last year’s race after starting in 34th, so the outstanding effort makes him even more of a challenge to beat Sunday.

Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson checked in with the third-fastest time of 134.672 seconds, followed by Chevrolet counterpart Tyler Reddick (134.74 seconds) in fourth. Austin Cindric (134.78 seconds) rounded out the top five, contributing to an impressive Ford effort in qualifying. Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher, Alex Bowman, renowned road racer Joey Hand and Cole Custer each raced inside the top 10.

Briscoe topped the charts in Group A’s lone session of the morning, speeding to a 134.663-second lap time at 108.217 mph in his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. Briscoe is no stranger to success at the popular Wisconsin road course, finishing sixth in this race in 2021 and reeling in a pair of top-seven finishes when he was in the Xfinity Series — seventh in 2019 and third in 2020.

Group A’s short session went without many incidents, but there were some. Most notable was Larson’s spin near the end of his six-lap run. The No. 5 only suffered minor damage and set a 135.278-second lap time, good for fifth overall.

Second out on the track, Group B was led by Ross Chastain, continuing Trackhouse Racing’s road-course prowess so far this season. Chastain’s fastest lap — 135.262 seconds — was clocked at third-quickest overall, 0.599 seconds behind Briscoe’s mark. Chastain’s No. 1 Chevrolet did have break issues upon later inspection, forcing the team to make changes for safety before Sunday’s race. No penalty was issued.

Toyota’s road-racing woes continued early with Christopher Bell fastest among the bunch in 12th. Bubba Wallace and Martin Truex Jr. finished 16th and 18th, respectively, with Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Kurt Busch slotting in outside the top 20. No Toyota driver made it into the final round of qualifying.

Qualifying Results

Pos No. Driver Team Time Speed
1 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 134.427 108.407
2 14 Chase Briscoe HighPoint.com Ford 134.465 108.376
3 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 134.672 108.210
4 8 Tyler Reddick 3CHI Chevrolet 134.740 108.155
5 2 Austin Cindric # Discount Tire Ford 134.780 108.123
6 34 Michael McDowell Love’s Travel Stops Ford 134.793 108.112
7 17 Chris Buescher Fastenal Ford 135.112 107.857
8 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 135.199 107.788
9 15 Joey Hand FordPro.com Ford 135.249 107.748
10 41 Cole Custer HaasTooling.com Ford 135.586 107.480
11 6 Brad Keselowski Kohler Generators Ford 134.907 108.021
12 1 Ross Chastain Advent Health Chevrolet 134.929 108.003
13 18 Kyle Busch Skittles America Mix Toyota 134.979 107.963
14 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Express Toyota 135.043 107.912
15 19 Martin Truex Jr. Bass Pro Shops Red White Blue Toyota 135.092 107.873
16 20 Christopher Bell Yahoo! Toyota 135.106 107.862
17 99 Daniel Suarez Jockey Chevrolet 135.231 107.762
18 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 135.234 107.760
19 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Dutch Boy Ford 135.371 107.651
20 3 Austin Dillon Dow Salutes Veterans Chevrolet 135.396 107.631
21 16 AJ Allmendinger(i) Gold Fish Casino Slots Chevrolet 135.419 107.613
22 45 Kurt Busch Monster Energy Toyota 135.471 107.571
23 21 Harrison Burton # Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford 135.483 107.562
24 10 Aric Almirola Haas Automation Ford 135.641 107.437
25 23 Bubba Wallace Columbia Sportswear Company Toyota 135.663 107.419
26 77 Josh Bilicki(i) Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet 135.700 107.390
27 43 Erik Jones U.S. Air Force Chevrolet 135.710 107.382
28 4 Kevin Harvick Busch Light Apple Ford 135.780 107.327
29 24 William Byron RaptorTough.com Chevrolet 135.857 107.266
30 42 Ty Dillon Allegiant Chevrolet 136.158 107.029
31 51 Cody Ware Nurtec ODT Military Salutes Ford 136.202 106.994
32 38 Todd Gilliland # Ruedebusch Dev & Construction Ford 136.222 106.978
33 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Pick’n Save/Velveeta Chevrolet 136.279 106.934
34 31 Justin Haley LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet 136.528 106.739
35 7 Corey LaJoie Built.com Chevrolet 136.56 106.714
36 27 Loris Hezemans(i) Hezeberg Engineering Systems Ford 138.129 105.501
37 78 Kyle Tilley Patriot Military Family FDN Ford 140.402 103.793

 

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