DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Ross Chastain will lead the field to the green flag at a superspeedway for the first time in his Cup Series career after winning the pole at Daytona International Speedway.
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The Trackhouse Racing driver won the pole on Friday evening with a lap of 48.808 seconds. This marked his first pole win of the season and the third of his career. His last two pole wins took place at Nashville Superspeedway and Watkins Glen International.
"I grasp that it doesn't have much bearing on knowing what tomorrow is going to bring, but for tonight and today for a new package, for Trackhouse to go and pick the right things for car build to come here and to execute through two rounds, it's incredible," Chastain said. "We've been good in one round before, but not the second."
MORE: Daytona Cup Series Starting Lineup
Chris Buescher qualified second with a lap of 48.859 seconds. He will join Chastain on the front row as he seeks his second career Cup Series win at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.
The rest of the top 10 included Austin Hill (48.863), Ryan Preece (48.881), Riley Herbst (48.976), Shane van Gisbergen (49.019), Connor Zilisch (49.020), Austin Cindric (49.071), Joey Logano (49.074), and Kyle Larson (49.082).
The top 10 in this starting lineup has no shortage of intrigue considering the battle at the cutline. Preece is the first driver below the Chase cutline heading into the regular-season finale on Saturday night.
He is 31 points back of van Gisbergen, who acknowledged earlier on Friday that his strategy at Daytona will depend on Preece's performance in the first two stages.
"I think we plan to be pretty conservative, and then see how his race is going and react to that," van Gisbergen said before qualifying. "If he's scored well in stage 1, we probably need to get amongst it in stage 2 and start pushing the issue a bit.
"It's going to be fun. It's a pretty cool feeling to have the pressure on us and see how we go."
The other driver in need of points early in the race is Cindric, who will line up behind both Preece and van Gisbergen. His buffer of 44 points is solid, but it's not insurmountable.
Bubba Wallace, the only other driver above the cutline without a secure spot, will have to start the superspeedway race outside of the top 10. He qualified 26th with a lap of 49.330 seconds. Though Wallace only needs two points to clinch his spot in the Chase.
The Cup Series regular-season finale will take place on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET. NBC will air the race with Leigh Diffey, Steve Letarte, and Jeff Burton in the booth.
