Chase Briscoe earns third consecutive NASCAR Cup pole, beating Kyle Busch

In NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at Michigan, top speeds were reaching 200 mph with drivers running mostly wide open all around the two-mile speedway.

But the best to do it was once again the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Chase Briscoe. He has now earned pole position for three straight race weekends and four total this season, posting a fast lap of 195.514mph.

“Tried to run low,” Briscoe told NASCAR on Prime. “I felt like with all of us running wide open fairly easily, if you could just cut a lot of distance, it would be better. I ran low, but then I ended up way high on exit, and I felt like the guys that kind of opened up their entry would maybe beat me back to the line.”

Briscoe was surprised the lap was good enough for pole, but he’ll happily take it. Briscoe hasn’t won a race since joining JGR, and he hopes a strong Saturday can finally translate into a winning weekend.

“We’ve been able to do that three weeks in a row and we haven’t really been able to execute with it so hopefully you know, third time’s the charm and hopefully we can finally get one on Sunday.”

Busch joins Briscoe on the front row

Kyle Busch, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Ronda Churchill Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Joining Briscoe on the front row will be the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Kyle Busch. This is his second front row start of the year after qualifying second at Talladega. He is in the middle of the longest winless streak of his career with over 70 races since his last trip to Victory Lane.

‘It did (surprise me),” said Busch when asked about the lap, as he appeared to struggle in practice. “We were a little bit down on the board there in practice and just didn’t have a good feel for the race car early on the tires. It got a little bit better with laps, but still, I didn’t go faster. I just ran the same speed the whole time. We made a lot of adjustments on it, though. I wasn’t really feeling the right front tire.

“It felt a little sketch coming to the checkered off of Turn 4, using up a little more race track than I wanted to in our Chevrolet. But posted a good lap. So, happy with that. Start up front, we can see the front, get a good pit stall selection and track position is everything these days so let’s go hold that.”

Denny Hamlin qualified third, William Byron fourth, and Kyle Larson, who went for a wild ride in a World of Outlaws sprint car race last night, was fifth. 

Chris Buescher, Josh Berry, Ty Gibbs, Bubba Wallace, and Zane Smith filled out the remainder of the top ten.

Tyler Reddick, who is the defending winner of this race, qualified 12th. Nashville winner Ryan Blaney qualified 13th as he tries to go back-to-back. Both of these drivers suffered cut tires in practice, but avoided damaging their cars.