DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Kyle Busch has just checked off another career goal. He has won the pole for the Daytona 500 for the first time in his career.
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Chase Briscoe qualified second for the crown jewel race to kick off his second season at Joe Gibbs Racing. This marked the second consecutive front row start for Briscoe. He won the pole for last season's Daytona 500, his first official start after taking over the No. 19 Toyota Camry.
Busch entered Wednesday night's qualifying session with two front row starts at Daytona International Speedway in his Cup career — both in the summer race. He won the pole for the 2013 summer race and qualified second for the 2019 summer race.
Rowdy kicked off the 2026 season by posting the fastest lap in the opening round of qualifying. He then repeated the feat by posting the fastest lap in the second round. This helped him claim his first Daytona 500 pole in his 21st start.
"Certainly, here on Wednesday night, being able to qualify on my first pole for the Daytona 500, that's pretty special," Busch said. "I've had one other speedway pole down here in Daytona for the summer race. This feels good.
"Feels really good for RCR as a group. Everybody from ECR, thanks to Bob and his whole team there. Thanks to zone Nicotine Pouches being on board for us. Maybe it was the flames that brought us all the speed and heat we needed for tonight.
"But also Lucas Oil, obviously their fuel treatments and oil treatments, everything that we run in this race car to give us the speed we need to be up front. Just a valiant effort by everybody here. It would be really nice to be doing an interview like this about being No. 1 come Sunday night."
The Wednesday night qualifying session also featured two Open drivers locking into the race.
23XI Racing's Corey Heim reached the second round and posted the fastest time out of the eight drivers battling for four spots. Justin Allgaier had the 14th-fastest time overall, but the second-fastest time among the Open drivers.
The Speedweeks schedule will continue on Thursday night with the two Duel qualifying races (7 p.m. ET on FS1). These will set the rest of the Daytona 500 starting lineup while also sending two other Open drivers to the crown jewel race.
