Kyle Busch earned his first Daytona 500 pole in his 21st attempt in the Super Bowl of stock car racing Wednesday night. The Richard Childress Racing driver earned the top spot in qualifying by just 0.016 seconds over Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe.
Busch had the fastest time of qualifying overall in his first run with a 48.933. He was the only driver to break 49 seconds at all during qualifying; his eventual pole lap came in at a 49.006.
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Busch will lead the field on Sunday. The two-time champion has never won the Daytona 500 and could add that feat to his storied Cup Series career. First, he led Duel 1 Thursday night to set the grid for the inside lane order for the Daytona 500.
Hours later, Briscoe led the way for the Duel 2 race to set the grid for the outside lane order in the race. Those two locked out the front row ahead of time and it was up to the other 43 drivers to sort out how things will look on Lap 1 on Sunday.
2026 Daytona Duels updates:: Results decide full starting grid
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After the two Duel races Thursday night, here’s how the starting grid looks:
Daytona 500 starting grid
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Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing
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Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing
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Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske
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Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports
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Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske
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Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports
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Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing
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Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports
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Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing
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Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports
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John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Legacy Motor Club
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Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing
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Shane van Gisbergen, No. 97 Trackhouse Racing
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Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing
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Daniel Suarez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports
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Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports
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Casey Mears, No. 66 Garage 66
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Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports
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Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing
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Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing
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Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports
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Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing
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Cole Custer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team
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Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club
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Noah Gragson, No. 4 Front Row Motorsports
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Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing
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Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing
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Riley Herbst, No. 35 23XI Racing
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Corey Heim, No. 67 23XI Racing
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Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports
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Jimmie Johnson, No. 84 Legacy Motor Club
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Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing
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Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing
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Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing
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AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing
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Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske
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Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing
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Anthony Alfredo, No. 62 Beard Motorsports
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William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports
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Justin Allgaier, No. 40 JR Motorsports
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Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2026 Daytona 500 starting grid: Full order for NASCAR’s season opener
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