Ross Chastain soars to Busch Light Pole Award for Daytona regular-season finale

What a clutch effort by Ross Chastain. The Floridian laid down a stunning lap of 184.391 mph in the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet to snatch his first Busch Light Pole position of the season at Daytona International Speedway—and the third of his career. It was a tight battle, with the 33-year-old beating RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher in the No. 17 Ford by just 0.051 seconds.

For Chastain, whose crew chief is Brandon McSwain, this is his best starting spot in 16 previous races on these 2.5-mile high banks and his first series pole since the 2023 road course race at Watkins Glen. "Life achievement," Chastain said of the result. "I was a kid sitting in the grandstands and we camped outside Turn 1... It's a big deal, a life achievement and a moment I'll never forget." It was a strong showing all around for his squad, with Trackhouse advancing all three of their Chevrolets into the 10-car qualifying round.

Behind Chastain and Buescher, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill will start third in the No. 33 RCR Chevrolet, driving the machine that the late Kyle Busch put on pole for this year’s Daytona 500. Alongside Hill on the second row is RFK’s Ryan Preece, who topped the opening round of qualifying to secure fourth in the No. 60 Ford—his best start of the season. Preece is currently 17th in the championship standings, sitting 44 points off Team Penske’s Austin Cindric and 31 points behind Chastain’s Trackhouse teammate, Shane van Gisbergen.

"I wanted the pole. Fourth is great, but not what I wanted," Preece said. "The good thing is we have a fast Ford Mustang, and we'll race the hell out of them tomorrow." Meanwhile, Preece's RFK teammate and co-owner Brad Keselowski qualified 21st in the No. 6 car and faces an even steeper hill to climb after failing pre-race technical inspection twice, resulting in the loss of pit selection and the ejection of car chief Jonathan Ellis. Keselowski enters the weekend 66 points below the cutline, though he remains mathematically eligible for The Chase.

Rounding out the top ten on the grid, 23XI Racing’s Riley Herbst will start fifth in the No. 35 Toyota after leading most of the opening session. Van Gisbergen rolls off sixth in the No. 97 Trackhouse Chevrolet, followed by his rookie teammate Connor Zilisch seventh in the No. 88 Trackhouse Chevrolet for his fourth top-10 start of the season and best on an oval. Cindric starts eighth, Team Penske teammate and three-time series champion Joey Logano ninth, and reigning series champion Kyle Larson tenth in the No. 5 Hendrick Chevrolet.