Chase Briscoe wins sixth NASCAR Cup pole of 2025 season at Iowa Speedway
Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images
NEWTON, Ia.—Big track, road course or short track—Chase Briscoe has shown blistering speed in his first season in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on all sorts of venues.
On Saturday at Iowa Speedway, a 0.875-mile short track, Briscoe won his sixth pole of the season with a lap at 136.933 mph (23.004 seconds) to earn the top starting spot in Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol (3:30 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
That effort followed a pole run last Saturday at mammoth 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In fact, in the last 11 NASCAR Cup Series qualifying sessions, Briscoe has put his car on the front row seven times with five Busch Light Pole Awards and a pair of second-place starts.
Briscoe, who has eight career poles, attributed his qualifying success to a burgeoning working relationship with crew chief James Small.
“I just feel that James and the engineers on the No.19 crew have done a really, really good job, especially these last two months, of understanding what I want and what I need out of the race car,” Briscoe said.
“I’ve even kind of noticed a switch with James over the course of the last two or three weeks even, where it went from ‘We’ve got to be doing this different’ to ‘We’ve got to get the car better for you now.’
“I think that came as they started to understand me more, and our performance has been better. James does such a great job of understanding what I need, especially on Saturdays for qualifying.”
Briscoe edged William Byron (136.435 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.084 seconds. Kyle Larson, Byron’s Hendrick Motorsport teammate, was third fastest at 136.429 mph.
Byron, Larson and teammate Chase Elliott, who qualified eighth, are locked in a tight battle for the Cup Series Regular Season Championship, with Elliott leading the series by four points over Byron and 15 over third-place Larson.
Austin Cindric (136.258 mph) qualified fourth in the fastest Ford, followed by Brad Keselowski and defending race winner Ryan Blaney.
Carson Hocevar, Elliott, AJ Allmendinger and Justin Haley secured positions seven through 10 on the grid.
Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing teammates Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece will start 27th and 33rd, respectively, as they battle for berth in the Cup Playoffs. Preece trails Buescher by 42 points in the race for what is currently the final spot.
Briscoe’s Camry was the only Toyota in the top 10. Denny Hamlin, who scraped the Turn 1 wall during practice, was 11th fastest in the No. 11 JGR Toyota.
Kyle Busch crashed in Turn 1 on his 18th practice lap and damaged his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet beyond repair. He’ll start from the rear of the
field in a backup car on Sunday.
NASCAR Cup Series
Starting Line Up by Row
Iowa Speedway
Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol
Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 8/2/2025 @ 03:59 PM Eastern
Driver Date Time Speed
Track Race Record: Chase Briscoe 08/02/25 23.004 136.933
Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed
Row 1: 1 19 Chase Briscoe Bass Pro Shops Toyota 23.004 136.933
2 24 William Byron Raptor Chevrolet 23.088 136.435
Row 2: 3 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 23.089 136.429
4 2 Austin Cindric Menards/Ideal Door Ford 23.101 136.358
Row 3: 5 6 Brad Keselowski Solomon Plumbing Ford 23.119 136.252
6 12 Ryan Blaney Wabash Ford 23.151 136.063
Row 4: 7 77 Carson Hocevar Miner Docks Doors and More Chevrolet 23.159 136.016
8 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 23.165 135.981
Row 5: 9 16 AJ Allmendinger Celsius Chevrolet 23.174 135.928
10 7 Justin Haley Gainbridge Chevrolet 23.198 135.788
Row 6: 11 11 Denny Hamlin Bob's Discount Furniture Toyota 23.219 135.665
12 21 Josh Berry Menards/Masterforce Tools Ford 23.230 135.601
Row 7: 13 71 Michael McDowell Delaware Life Chevrolet 23.238 135.554
14 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 23.245 135.513
Row 8: 15 23 Bubba Wallace Alltroo Toyota 23.247 135.501
16 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 23.255 135.455
Row 9: 17 20 Christopher Bell Rheem Toyota 23.268 135.379
18 3 Austin Dillon Get Bioethanol Chevrolet 23.271 135.362
Row 10: 19 41 Cole Custer HaasTooling.com Ford 23.286 135.274
20 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 23.306 135.158
Row 11: 21 88 Shane Van Gisbergen # Red Bull Chevrolet 23.308 135.147
22 45 Tyler Reddick McDonald's Toyota 23.322 135.066
Row 12: 23 38 Zane Smith Mystik Lubricants Ford 23.338 134.973
24 35 Riley Herbst # Monster Energy Zero Sugar Toyota 23.363 134.829
Row 13: 25 43 Erik Jones Tri State Vacuum & Rental, LLC Toyota 23.365 134.817
26 99 Daniel Suarez Choice Privileges Chevrolet 23.396 134.638
Row 14: 27 17 Chris Buescher Body Guard Ford 23.398 134.627
28 1 Ross Chastain Busch Light Farming Chevrolet 23.402 134.604
Row 15: 29 42 John Hunter Nemechek Dollar Tree Toyota 23.439 134.391
30 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. NOS Energy Chevrolet 23.459 134.277
Row 16: 31 4 Noah Gragson Rasmussen Air & Gas Energy Ford 23.509 133.991
32 10 Ty Dillon Sea Best Chevrolet 23.526 133.894
Row 17: 33 60 Ryan Preece Mohawk Northeast Inc. Ford 23.538 133.826
34 34 Todd Gilliland Love's Travel Stops Ford 23.631 133.299
Row 18: 35 51 Cody Ware Costa Oil Ford 23.633 133.288
36 66 Joey Gase(i) King of the Hill on Hulu Ford 25.173 125.134
Row 19: 37 8 Kyle Busch Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet 0.000 0.000
Did Not Qualify: None.
Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs
Chevrolet 15 0 Ford 13 0
Toyota 9 0
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
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