Chase Briscoe earns pole for Nashville Cup race as JGR sweeps front row

Chase Briscoe was the 36th of 39 drivers on track at Nashville, but he put down the fastest lap time in qualifying with a 29.125s run. He beat Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin by 0.049s, who will join him on the front row tomorrow.

“Honestly, I thought I ran a decent lap,” said Briscoe. “Just a smooth lap and sometimes that’s what it takes. Obviously, a good Saturday for our Bass Pro Shops Toyota and obviously two weeks in a row we’ve been able to do that now, which is nice. Just need to put a Sunday together now.

“Track position is going to be really really big here tomorrow and that’s the name of the game most every place we go, certainly at this place. So hopefully we can maintain track position and keep it up front all day long.’’

Briscoe now has three pole positions in his first year with JGR, also earning pole in the Daytona 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 as well.

William Byron was the top Chevrolet driver in third, Tyler Reddick (who led practice) was fourth, and newly crowned Coke 600 winner Ross Chastain timed in fifth. 

Brad Keselowski, Christopher Bell, Michael McDowell, Joey Logano, and Chris Buescher filled out the remainder of the top ten.

A.J. Allmendinger qualified 17th following some inspection drama earlier where NASCAR pulled the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet aside after catching the team making unapproved adjustments.

Shane van Gisbergen ended up 23rd, which is his best qualifying effort on an oval this year, excluding the All-Star Open (a non-championship race), where he started from pole position.

Kyle Larson was hoping to rebound from a difficult Memorial Day Weekend, which saw him crash out of both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600. Unfortunately, Nashville offered no relief. He will start 28th in his worst qualifying effort of the entire 2025 season.

Photos from Nashville – Practice & Qualifying