Busch Takes Daytona 500 Pole Over Briscoe; Heim, Allgaier Lock In

Now, Busch has a chance to do something that no driver has ever done, which is capture his first career Daytona 500 win after 20 previous attempts.

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“Yeah, it’s a box we’ve got to check, so here we are. This is an opportunity to be able to do that. And I’ve come down here a lot of years, and I think I’ve finished in about every position possible. It would be nice to close out 2026 with a win in the Daytona 500.”

Incredibly, Busch’s first Daytona 500 pole, will also serve as the first-ever pole position for Pohlman, and it comes in his first NASCAR Cup Series race atop the pit box.

“To come out swinging and get a Daytona 500 pole as a first race as a crew chief is pretty humbling for me,” Pohlman said. “There’s a lot of hype around it, and feels really good, obviously. But I think like to echo what they’ve said, here, you start the season off strong, and this is just one step of it.”

Richard Childress, the Founder and CEO of Richard Childress Racing, is proud of the work that he has seen from Pohlman and the No. 8 team in the offseason.

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“It’s great. You know, getting Jim on and just watching how he fits into our family at RCR, it’s great,” Childress said. “I stand back and watch a lot, and to watch how they work this Winter, and the way they just do everything right now, I’m just happy and proud of all of them. And Kyle, we’ve got to get this [Daytona] 500 [win].”

Due to the Daytona 500’s unique qualifying format, Busch and Briscoe are the only two drivers, who locked in their starting position on Wednesday night.

It wasn’t another pole position, but Briscoe was proud to once again slide his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on the front row for NASCAR’s biggest race of the season, the Daytona 500, and he has more confidence on superspeedway tracks following his win at Talladega Superspeedway last Fall.

“You know at least, in my case, I had never been able to win on any superspeedway at any level. So finally getting to win one, I definitely feel like I’ll be more confident in my moves,” Briscoe stated. “You know, I haven’t ran a superspeedway race since then, but I remember even Stenhouse coming up to me the week after Talladega, just telling me, like, ‘After you get one, everything will click and it’ll just be easier from now on.’ I hope that’s the case.”

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While the 36 Chartered entries, and Jimmie Johnson, who is using an Open Exemption Provisional, there were two spots in the Daytona 500 field up for grabs, reserved for the top two fastest “Open” entries in Wednesday night’s qualifying session.

Corey Heim, the driver of the No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota, secured his first-career Daytona 500 start with a qualifying lap time of 49.138 seconds in the opening round of the session, which advanced him into the second round, where he would join nine other drivers in battling for the pole.

Ultimately, Heim settled for the fifth-fastest lap in the final round of the session, which means he will start from the third position in his America 250 Duel Qualifier race on Thursday. Heim was forced to sweat out the possibility of having to fend off two fellow “Open” entries in the final round of qualifying, which didn’t materialize. In the end, Heim was proud of his team for the speed that they built into his car.

“I thought for a minute three of us were going to be in the final round and we were going to have to race it out. But, no, just to cap it all off is so impressive,” Heim said in his post-qualifying press conference. “Thankful for 23XI Racing and Toyota, coming here with an “Open” car. A fourth team at 23XI, to be able to do that, is pretty impressive even for my eyes.”

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Justin Allgaier was the other “Open” entry driver to secure his place in the field with a qualifying lap time of 49.201 seconds. This will lock JR Motorsports into The Great American Race for the second consecutive season.

Going into his second Daytona 500 for JR Motorsports, Allgaier said he felt things would feel less intense. However, that was not the case, as he felt all kinds of pressure in locking into the field for the Daytona 500.

“I think it is interesting. I thought there would be less stress, and I felt like for me, the stress actually went up,” Allgaier explained. “Because I just think the expectation of last year, everything we were able to accomplish. You know, the effort we put in. When you know something, and you’re able to do it once, and you’re able to kind of understand it, you feel like you’re going to come back in a lot better capacity, and we did that.”

Corey LaJoie was just 0.005 seconds off the time set by Allgaier, and as a result was the first “Open” entry driver on the outside looking in. The driver of the No. 99 RFK Racing Ford will look to advance to the Daytona 500 field by way of Thursday’s America 250 Duels.

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LaJoie will be among the six “Open” entry drivers battling it out for the final two starting positions in the Daytona 500 field through Thursday’s America 250 Duels. Joining LaJoie in the scrap for the final transfer spots will be Anthony Alfredo (35th), Chandler Smith (41st), BJ McLeod (42nd), Casey Mears (43rd), and JJ Yeley (44th).

Noah Gragson, who initially clocked in with a lap time of 49.504 seconds, had his qualifying time disallowed after Gragson placed his left hand over the window net during his run for an aerodynamic advantage. NASCAR instituted a rule forcing drivers to keep both hands on the steering wheel for the 2026 season to keep them from doing this.

“Yeah, I completely forgot about that rule, so that one’s on me,” Gragson said after his qualifying run.

Gragson continued, “I feel like an idiot after that.”

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Due to the rules violation, Gragson was credited as the last-place driver in the qualifying session, and he’ll have to drive from the rear of his Duel Qualifier race if he wants to gain a solid starting spot for Sunday’s Daytona 500.

The only on-track activity for the NASCAR Cup Series on Thursday, February 12 will be the America 250 Duels at Daytona. The opening Duel Qualifier race, which will set the inside lane of the starting lineup, will begin at 7:00 PM ET and will be televised on FS1.

FS1 will then roll into coverage of the second America 250 Duel, which will set the even-numbered starting spots in the field. That race is scheduled to begin at 8:45 PM ET.

2026 Daytona 500 Qualifying Results

(OEP) locked into Daytona 500 with Open Exemption Provisional
(x) indicates front row starter for 2026 Daytona 500
(y) indicates an “Open” entry that has secured a Daytona 500 starting spot
(z) indicates an “Open” entry still fighting for a starting spot in Thursday’s Duels
# indicates Rookie of the Year Contender
* indicates “Open” entry

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This article was originally published on www.si.com/onsi/racing-america as Busch Takes Daytona 500 Pole Over Briscoe; Heim, Allgaier Lock In.