Chase Briscoe soared to his third consecutive Busch Light Pole Award on Saturday morning, setting the pace in NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at Michigan International Speedway.
Briscoe registered a best lap of 195.514 mph on the 2-mile track, grabbing the first starting spot for his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 (2 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The pole position was Briscoe’s fourth of the season, his first at Michigan and the sixth of his Cup Series career.
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Briscoe, in his first season with the Gibbs organization, won the pole for the season-opening Daytona 500. In the last three weeks, he’s claimed the pole at Charlotte, Nashville and now Michigan.
Kyle Busch will share the front row after posting the second-fastest qualifying effort — 195.371 mph in the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. JGR’s Denny Hamlin will start third with Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson rounding out the first five starters in that order.
Briscoe tops practice, too; tire issues snag three teams
Chase Briscoe led a 1-2 performance by Joe Gibbs Racing drivers in Cup Series practice at Michigan International Speedway.
Briscoe set a best lap of 195.482 mph in his No. 19 JGR Toyota. He was just 0.016 seconds ahead of teammate Christopher Bell’s No. 20 Toyota, which clocked in with a second-fastest speed of 195.397 mph.
Chris Buescher (195.207 mph) was third in the fastest Ford, followed by a pair of Chevrolet drivers — Alex Bowman (194.985) and Austin Dillon (194.974) — who completed the top five.
MORE: Practice results | Weekend schedule
A trio of drivers found trouble with flat tires during practice. Ryan Blaney, last weekend’s winner at Nashville Superspeedway, stopped on the backstretch after a loss of pressure on the left-front tire of his No. 12 Team Penske Ford nearly halfway through Group 2’s 25-minute session. The car was towed back to the garage and Blaney was 26th-fastest in practice.
Tyler Reddick’s No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota sputtered with a flat left-rear tire just moments later, coming to a stop on the Turn 3 apron before he guided the car back to the pits, where his crew went to work on the rear diffuser. Reddick, who won this race a year ago, was seventh-best on the practice list.
Shane van Gisbergen encountered an issue in the final minute of practice for the opening group, slowing his No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet with a flat left-rear tire. Van Gisbergen limped back to pit road and ended up 31st on the speed chart.
This story will be updated.
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