Chase Briscoe claimed his third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series pole position Saturday morning, with the Joe Gibbs Racing driver taking top honors at Michigan International Speedway for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400.
Briscoe’s No. 19 JGR Toyota turned a lap of 195.514 mph for his fourth pole of the season — just besting Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch, who will start alongside with a lap of 195.317 in the No. 8 Chevrolet. This equals Busch’s best start of the season (also second at Talladega, Ala.).
Briscoe’s work marks the first time a driver has won pole positions at three consecutive races since Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson did it last April at Richmond, Michigan, and Texas.
“I was surprised truthfully it held on,” the 30-year-old Indiana native said of his fast lap. “It was not as easy as I thought it was going to be just holding it wide open. But our Bass Pro Shops has been pretty fast in race trim and I thought we could have been even better.
“It will be nice starting up front and we’ve been able to do that now three weeks in a row but haven’t been able to execute with it, so hopefully third time is a charm and hopefully we can finally get one on Sunday.”
Briscoe’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin, was third quickest in the No. 11 Toyota and will start alongside the current NASCAR Cup Series points leader, William Byron in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Interestingly, neither of those two championship teams has won on the 2-mile Michigan oval in a decade.
The last win for Hendrick came in 2014 and the last for Gibbs in 2015.
However, Hendrick’s lineup now boasts a three-time Michigan winner in Larson, who scored his career first series victory at the track in 2016 while driving for Chip Ganassi Racing. The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Larson will roll off fifth Sunday alongside another former Michigan winner (2023) Roush Fenway Keselowski’s Chris Buescher.
“I feel fine, that was an unfortunately part failure there,” Larson said, assuring he was okay after flipping his car in a World of Outlaws race Friday night.
“Felt good there today and held it wide open in qualifying, as did the whole field.
“Hopefully, we can find a little more turn tomorrow. I think all of us being very similar on speed it will be difficult in traffic so having some turn will be a benefit. That’s our main objective at this point.
“But overall happy to qualify fifth there. That’s honestly a little bit better than I thought we would be. Now we’ll rest up and study and try to be ready for tomorrow.”
Defending race winner, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick was 12th in qualifying – along with last week’s Nashville race winner, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney suffering a tire problem in practice. Blaney will roll off 13th.
–RFK’S BUESCHER FOR THE WIN
Judging by the past two years, the summer months have been productive for Buescher.
Last year he earned his only win of the season in September at Watkins Glen.
Two years ago, the driver of the No. 17 RKF Ford scored all three of his victories in the summer – back-to-back at Richmond (July 30) and Michigan (Aug. 7), then won again at the end of August at Daytona International Speedway’s regular season finale.
Heading into this week’s Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan, Buescher is the only one among the three RFK drivers ranked above the Playoff cutoff line – 15th in the championship by Playoff standings; six points up on Kyle Busch in that last Playoff position and only eight points up on his RFK teammate Ryan Preece in 17th.
Buescher is of course hopeful that he can reclaim some of that Michigan magic on the two-miler. He led a race high 52 of 200 laps and beat Martin Truex Jr. by a slight 152-second for his win two years ago. He has only three top 10s in 14 Michigan starts – but two in the last two races (win and sixth last year). It’s not enough to make him over-confident but does give him some optimism heading into the all-important summer months of competition. With points so close, a victory may be the best option to earn a Playoff bid.
“You can’t depend on points to get you in the playoffs when it’s as tight as it is every week,” Buescher said. “I think that’s been our mindset, which means that ultimately wherever we bounce around that [Playoff cutoff] line we’ll be aware of it, but it’s a matter of figuring out how to go win races and we haven’t done that yet.
“We’ve not been quite good enough and we’re working on trying to clean up some of the detail work and study a little harder and be better from my end behind the wheel and make it to where we basically lock ourselves in on that side of it and don’t have to have any of that thought in the back of our heads.
“But I certainly don’t want it to be what we’re sitting here thinking of how can we get two points here, three points there and try and just feel like we can skate our way in. It doesn’t work. Ultimately, you can’t count on that when it comes down to the end.”
–HOCEVAR AND STENHOUSE
In last weekend’s race at Nashville Superspeedway, 22-year-old Carson Hocevar and veteran Ricky Stenhouse Jr. collided on track — ending the day for Stenhouse. But Hocevar was able to rally to a second-place finish – tying his career best showing in the NASCAR Cup Series.
After the race, Stenhouse was understandably riled, but both drivers report that they have spoken, and all is good moving forward even if they don’t necessarily agree on how last week played out.
“Me and him both have the reputation, I guess, of being aggressive at times and everything, so at that one point, we both reminded each other that even with those reputations, we’ve raced each other very well together, right?” the Michigan-native Hocevar said Saturday morning, before practice. “It clashes together. So, yeah, I mean we’ve had no issues before, as he had said, and I feel like we’ve had a decent relationship leading up to this.”
Stenhouse told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio this week that he was satisfied with the conversation between the two, “I thought it was productive and, based off his comments, I felt like it was received productive.”
Hocevar, who qualified 14th for the NASCAR Cup Series race and is also competing in Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, seemed at peace with where things sit and conceded he would rather be talking about his No. 77 Spire Motorsports team’s improvement. He’s already had a career best pair of runner-up efforts and also earned three top-10s – half of his full season total last year.
Asked Saturday if he was satisfied to be known for his aggressive driving style – some reporters comparing him to his hero Dale Earnhardt – Hocevar insisted he’s just being himself.
“Everything about me is real… like I’m not trying to play a part, try to fit a role or trying to pretend to be anybody,” he said. “But, you know, it’s for everybody else to decide on what they get and perceive of me. I know who I am and, you know, ultimately, I want to be known as me and sometimes that leads to comparisons.”
–PENSKE FOCUS
Last week’s Nashville race winner, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney was asked about the relief he felt finally earning that first trophy of the year — and guaranteed Playoff position — after being so close to wins multiple times this season. He insisted nothing would really “change” for his or his team’s approach going forward.
“It’s really nothing different,” the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion said. “We approach every week trying to win the race and no matter what spot you’re in, whether you’re not locked in on wins or you are. We did a great job last week of finally closing one out and you just try to do it again.
“A lot of people talk about that. Is there a mindset change when you win and you get locked in? I’ve never really believed that. I’ve always, to me at least and our group, it’s just we prepare every week like you’re trying to win the race, whether you’ve won one, zero or five it’s the same thing.”
–BABY WATCH
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin remains on “baby watch” for the second weekend. His fiancee, Jordan, is due to give birth to a baby boy — their third child — at any time. Hamlin flew back to his Charlotte-area home following Saturday afternoon qualifying to be with Jordan and will return to Michigan just prior to Sunday’s green flag.
–By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service. Special to Field Level Media
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