SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Chase Briscoe made NASCAR Cup Series history with winning the pole for Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Photo: Dominic Aragon/TRE
Briscoe became the first driver to win the pole for the Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600 and the Brickyard 400 in the same season. The feat has been possible since the Brickyard 400 joined the schedule in 1994.
Briscoe ran around the historic 2.5-mile track in 49.136 seconds, averaging 183.165 MPH from one time crossing the famed yard of bricks to another.
Briscoe grew up just an hour-and-a-half from Indy, in Mitchell, Indiana, where his family still is. In fact, Briscoe said this weekend lined up right for him to arrive in town Tuesday night and attend his sister’s wedding Friday night.
In a long season that sees Briscoe and his 35 other main NASCAR Cup Series competitors go from April to November without much time off, a hometown visit like this is everything to him.
“Outside of Christmas, [this] is the only week that I get to go home… so for me to go back and be able to see my grandparents and everything – I think it honestly helps me recharge my batteries,” Briscoe said. “It has just been a really fun week to be able to come up here and do all of the things we have done, and even Brooks (Briscoe’s son) is old enough to know what is going on. He understands what Indiana is and the significance is to it, for myself and our families, so that makes it fun for sure.”
Briscoe won a NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Indy in 2020 on the road course. While that win was special, winning on the oval in the NASCAR Cup Series with loved ones and fans in attendance would be extra special for the hometown boy.
In 28 prior Brickyard 400s, a top-five starter has won half of the time. That’s good for Toyota as they swept the top-five starting spots with Briscoe, Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones, Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs. William Byron’s Chevrolet and Chris Buescher’s Ford start sixth and seventh as the best-starting drivers of their respective manufacturers. Rounding out the top-10 is Carson Hocevar, A.J. Allmendinger and Austin Cindric.
In 11th, Shane van Gisbergen earned his best oval qualifying effort yet in the NASCAR Cup Series.
On the other hand, favorites Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin will start 30th and 39th, respectively.
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick’s final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen’s stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers’ stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com