A full lineup of 40 cars took part in the NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Chase Briscoe secured his second pole position of the 2026 season with a lap time of 32.396 seconds, narrowly edging out his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin by just 0.017 seconds. Briscoe was also the fastest driver during Friday’s practice session.
Briscoe commented, “Our car was really strong in practice yesterday too. We have a very fast Bass Pro Shops Toyota. It’s wild—last year I earned seven poles, but qualifying has been tough this season. We joked that this is our first real pole; we had one at Talladega, but this one definitely feels different. I felt great about the car in practice, and having pit stall number one with our crew is definitely an advantage for tomorrow. Now, we just need to execute.”
Starting behind him, Tyler Reddick will be in third place, championship leader Kyle Larson in fourth, and Austin Cindric in fifth. Larson’s nearest challenger for the title, Christopher Bell, will start in sixth, followed by Chase Elliott in seventh, William Byron eighth, Ryan Blaney ninth, and Daniel Suarez tenth.
When asked about losing the pole, Hamlin admitted, “I wasn’t looking closely, but I think I might have been saving my tires a bit too much coming to green. On the actual lap, I couldn’t quite get through the middle to Turn 4 as well as I needed to. The car was freer than I expected, but the team did a great job making adjustments since yesterday. I needed work on the race setup, and they hit the right spots.”
Hamlin also expressed his desire to win the championship with many friends and family present this weekend.
During qualifying, Brad Keselowski, in his last race before leaving RFK Racing, lost control exiting Turn 4 and hit the inside wall. He said, “The track was incredibly slick. I was trying to find some grip, but there wasn’t much down there. Wish I could do that lap over, but I was just doing my best to be fast.”
Early in qualifying, Heim set the pace with a 32.763-second lap, later edged out by McDowell by 0.013 seconds with half the field still to run. As the championship contenders took their turns, speeds increased significantly. Cindric moved up to first place by almost two-tenths of a second over McDowell, but Briscoe topped that by over a tenth. Despite repairs from a previous practice crash, Reddick drove fast enough to come within half a tenth of Briscoe’s time. Hamlin was the closest challenger, missing the pole by just 0.017 seconds.
Notably, for the first time since Hendrick Motorsports began in 1984, the team finished the year without securing a single pole position. Casey Mears celebrated his 500th career start, qualifying 37th.
Fan Take: This nail-biting qualifying showdown underscores the incredible competitiveness at the top of NASCAR this season, highlighting rising stars like Chase Briscoe and intense battles among established champions. For fans, it means the championship finale promises thrilling racing action and possibly a shakeup of traditional power dynamics in the sport.
Source: www.motorsport.com
