BRISTOL, Tenn. – Alex Bowman secured the pole position for Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, thanks to an outstanding performance in qualifying.
Bowman, driving his No. 48 Chevrolet from Hendrick Motorsports, completed the fastest lap in 14.912 seconds (128.675 mph). This time represents the fastest lap record achieved in Bristol with the NASCAR Cup Series Next Gen car.
His performance allowed him to surpass Ricky Stenhouse Jr., also with Chevrolet, by 0.013 seconds, who recorded a speed of 128.563 mph. In this way, Bowman secured the first starting position for the ninth race of the season.
The Busch Light Pole Award wasn’t the only thing that excited Bowman. Tire wear during the practice session prior to qualifying was notable, similar to the previous year’s spring race at Thunder Valley, where tire wear played a crucial role.
I think we are all much more prepared than last spring.
Alex Bowman
Bowman completed his lap under a light cloud cover, with the sun appearing shortly after, which slightly warmed the track on a cool day.
I’m excited for a tire management race. It’s going to be a lot of fun. We’ll see how it goes.
Alex Bowman
Kyle Larson qualified third with a speed of 128.511 mph, after having won the pole position in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race. Denny Hamlin, winner of the last two Cup races, placed fourth with the fastest Toyota (128.460 mph), while Ryan Blaney led the Ford drivers with the fifth-best time (128.305 mph).
In seven of the last eight Cup races at Bristol, the winner started from the top five starting positions, including two from the pole position and two from the second position.
Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell secured sixth and seventh places. AJ Allmendinger, Carson Hocevar, and Justin Haley rounded out the top ten.
Kyle Busch finished in 15th place after spinning in Turn 4 on his second lap, which caused him a tire issue. Joey Logano, who qualified right after Busch, lost control in Turn 2 and crashed into the outside wall, relegating him to 38th place for Sunday’s race.
