Chase Briscoe won Talladega pole for YellaWood 500
NXTbets Pro | Published On: October 24, 2026
Briscoe won pole
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Chase Briscoe grabbed the pole for the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, putting himself at the front of the field for the NASCAR Cup Series race. Briscoe turned a lap in 51.466 seconds at 186.065 mph, a run that held up as the best effort in qualifying and gave him his first pole of the 2026 season. It also marked his first career pole at Talladega, a track where starting position can shape the entire day. Briscoe brings the speed in a No. 19 Toyota, and his run put him ahead of a crowded qualifying order that featured several of the series’ bigger names. Austin Hill was closest to him, qualifying second and finishing just 0.032 seconds back. Connor Zilisch took third and Shane van Gisbergen was fourth, leaving Briscoe at the top of the board after a tight run at one of NASCAR’s fastest tracks.
Top 10 qualifiers
The rest of the top 10 showed how close the session was from front to back. Chris Buescher, Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson all landed in the group, giving the race a deep mix of contenders near the front. That group mattered at Talladega because track position can turn a fast car into a race-winning threat before the field settled in. Briscoe’s speed gave him the clearest edge, but the gap behind him stayed tight enough to keep the front of the grid packed with drivers who could work their way into the lead pack early. Hill’s runner-up effort put him in a strong spot to challenge from the start, and Zilisch and van Gisbergen also earned prime spots with solid runs of their own. The first 10 qualifiers gave the YellaWood 500 a front row and a lead group filled with familiar Cup Series names, leaving the rest of the field outside that group in qualifying.
Points race pressure
The qualifying results also landed in the middle of a tight championship picture with three races left. Larson entered the race as the points leader and held a five-point edge over Bell, while Briscoe arrived third in the standings, 24 points behind Larson. That kept Briscoe in the mix at a critical point in the season. The starting order also pushed several other notable drivers outside the top 10. Joey Logano, William Byron, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney all qualified outside that group. Tyler Reddick had the slowest Chase qualifying effort and qualified 33rd. At a track where the draft could move a car forward quickly or trap it in traffic, the qualifying order created several different paths through the race. Briscoe started from the best spot on the grid, while Larson and Bell remained at the top of the championship standings.
