Chase Briscoe on pole at Michigan
Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images
BROOKLYN, Mich.—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 (2 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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 Superspeedway).
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. Briscoe, in his first season with the Gibbs organization, won the pole for the season-opening Daytona 500. In the last three weeks, he’s claimed the Busch Light Pole Award at Charlotte, Nashville and now Michigan.
“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 Toyota 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 organizations 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 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) RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher.
“I feel fine, that was an unfortunate part failure there,” Larson said, assuring he was OK 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. Like last week’s Nashville race winner, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, he suffered a tire problem in practice. Blaney will roll off 13th.
Briscoe tops practice, too; tire issues snag three teams
Chase Briscoe led a 1-2 performance by Joe Gibbs Racing drivers in Cup Series practice at Michigan International Speedway.
Briscoe set a best lap of 195.482 mph in his No. 19 JGR Toyota. He was just 0.016 seconds ahead of teammate Christopher Bell’s No. 20 Toyota, which clocked in with a second-fastest speed of 195.397 mph.
Chris Buescher (195.207 mph) was third in the fastest Ford, followed by a pair of Chevrolet drivers — Alex Bowman (194.985) and Austin Dillon (194.974) — who completed the top five.
A trio of drivers found trouble with flat tires during practice. Ryan Blaney, last weekend’s winner at Nashville Superspeedway, stopped on the backstretch after a loss of pressure on the left-front tire of his No. 12 Team Penske Ford nearly halfway through Group 2’s 25-minute session. The car was towed back to the garage and Blaney was 26th-fastest in practice.
Tyler Reddick’s No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota sputtered with a flat left-rear tire just moments later, coming to a stop on the Turn 3 apron before he guided the car back to the pits, where his crew went to work on the rear diffuser. Reddick, who won this race a year ago, was seventh-best on the practice list.
Shane van Gisbergen encountered an issue in the final minute of practice for the opening group, slowing his No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet with a flat left-rear tire. Van Gisbergen limped back to pit road and ended up 31st on the speed chart.
NASCAR Cup Series
Starting Line Up by Row
Michigan International Speedway
FireKeepers Casino 400
Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 6/7/2025 @ 11:43 AM Eastern
Driver Date Time Speed
Track Race Record: Dale Jarrett 06/13/99 2:17:56 173.997
Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed
Row 1: 1 19 Chase Briscoe Bass Pro Shops Toyota 36.826 195.514
2 8 Kyle Busch BetMGM Chevrolet 36.853 195.371
Row 2: 3 11 Denny Hamlin Yahoo! Toyota 36.861 195.328
4 24 William Byron Raptor Chevrolet 36.878 195.238
Row 3: 5 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 36.889 195.180
6 17 Chris Buescher Kroger/Kraft/Artesano Ford 36.908 195.080
Row 4: 7 21 Josh Berry Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford 36.920 195.016
8 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 36.927 194.979
Row 5: 9 23 Bubba Wallace Columbia Toyota 36.937 194.926
10 38 Zane Smith Long John Silver's Ford 36.937 194.926
Row 6: 11 2 Austin Cindric Discount Tire Ford 36.938 194.921
12 45 Tyler Reddick Mobil 1 Toyota 36.954 194.837
Row 7: 13 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Knauf Ford 36.961 194.800
14 77 Carson Hocevar Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet 36.973 194.737
Row 8: 15 22 Joey Logano Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford 36.975 194.726
16 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 36.977 194.716
Row 9: 17 9 Chase Elliott UniFirst Chevrolet 36.997 194.610
18 10 Ty Dillon Sea Best Chevrolet 37.000 194.595
Row 10: 19 16 AJ Allmendinger Action Industries Chevrolet 37.013 194.526
20 1 Ross Chastain Busch Light Apple Chevrolet 37.031 194.432
Row 11: 21 42 John Hunter Nemechek Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota 37.031 194.432
22 43 Erik Jones Dollar Tree Toyota 37.034 194.416
Row 12: 23 60 Ryan Preece Castrol Ford 37.052 194.321
24 41 Cole Custer HaasTooling.com Ford 37.052 194.321
Row 13: 25 20 Christopher Bell Rheem Toyota 37.061 194.274
26 88 Shane Van Gisbergen # Safety Culture Chevrolet 37.075 194.201
Row 14: 27 6 Brad Keselowski BuildSubmarines.com Ford 37.081 194.170
28 3 Austin Dillon Dow Mobility Science Chevrolet 37.124 193.945
Row 15: 29 4 Noah Gragson MillerTech Ford 37.125 193.939
30 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Real American Beer Chevrolet 37.137 193.877
Row 16: 31 7 Justin Haley Garner Trucking Chevrolet 37.149 193.814
32 71 Michael McDowell Delaware Life Chevrolet 37.151 193.804
Row 17: 33 34 Todd Gilliland Martin Transportation Systems Ford 37.160 193.757
34 35 Riley Herbst # Monster Energy Zero Sugar Toyota 37.183 193.637
Row 18: 35 99 Daniel Suarez Jockey Infinite Cool Underwear Chevrolet 37.230 193.392
36 51 Cody Ware Jacob Construction Ford 37.406 192.482
Did Not Qualify: None.
Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs
Chevrolet 15 0 Ford 12 0
Toyota 9 0
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Our Partners
.png)
