If you placed a bet saying anyone besides Hendrick Motorsports would win the Daytona 500 pole, you might be delusional.
Hendrick cars swept the top three in Wednesday night’s qualifying for the second year in a row, with Alex Bowman clearing defending pole-sitter Kyle Larson by over a tenth of a second. Besides being his third career Daytona 500 pole after 2018 and 2021, Bowman has qualified on the front row a record six years in a row.
A Chevrolet has won the race pole every year since 2013, while a Hendrick car or a technical ally has done so for the past nine editions.
“I don’t really feel like I tried to do anything different than the other guys,” Bowman said in his post-qualifying press conference. “Just try to kind of let the race car go where it wants and not bind it up.
“As a driver, really all you can do is get the best launch you can, hit your shift points right, try to run the best you can, not mess it up. Glad I didn’t mess it up. I was kind of just letting the race car go where it wanted to.”
The ten-car second round of qualifying exclusively consisted of Chevrolets and Fords, with every Hendrick driver but Chase Elliott advancing. Kyle Busch of Richard Childress Racing was the lone non-Hendrick Chevrolet in Round #2, but had his time disallowed after going below the double yellow line. Aric Almirola led the six Fords who cracked the second round in fourth.
Toyota’s Bubba Wallace barely missed out on Round #2 after qualifying eleventh, just .001 behind tenth-placed Harrison Burton. While no Toyotas made the second round, Wallace’s 23XI Racing team-mate Travis Pastrana had plenty of reason to celebrate as he qualified twenty-fifth to guarantee himself a spot in the race as the second-best car without a charter.
Credit: Legacy Motor Club
By locking himself on qualifying time, Pastrana is set to make his Cup Series début despite having last run a superspeedway race in the Xfinity Series in 2013.
“I shifted a little bit early on two and didn’t lift enough shifting to fifth so I had to double let go and I thought I just blew it,” recalled Pastrana. “I look at Bubba’s time and the car definitely had a little bit more. This team helped me to get there and like Kurt (Busch) just told me, now it’s time to learn. We’ll go to work tomorrow and then we’re in the 500, so cool.
“We’ll party Sunday night, but this is a huge weight off my shoulders. I begged, bartered, and did everything but stealing from everyone to be here.”
Also making the race on time was Jimmie Johnson in twenty-third, boasting the opposite of Pastrana’s lack of Cup experience as a seven-time series champion and twice-500 winner. Incidentally, Johnson’s Cup successes came in the #48 that Bowman currently drives.
“Came down here for my rookie season when the #48 team was just started up. We had to get in through qualifying. That was a very stressful moment. So I’ve kind of fallen back on that experience, although it was twenty-something years ago now,” said Johnson. “There was a different feeling knowing there’s something bad that can happen, you might not be in the race. Did have that sense at the (Indianapolis) 500.
“But once I rolled off pit lane, fortunately that went away. That’s my first time in a plate car with this new Next Gen car. The experience was way different than I anticipated. The ride quality was much rougher. I didn’t know if that was supposed to happen or not.
“Then when I pulled it into fifth gear, which is weird to go to fifth gear, the drag of the vehicle, the rpm dropped really far. I didn’t know that was normal, so the entire lap I made around, I thought something was potentially wrong with the car. The RPM was really low, didn’t feel very fast. Once I crossed the finish line, I heard we had a good lap. It was stressful out there, more stressful than I intended it to be.”
With Johnson and Pastrana locked in, only two spots remain for the four non-chartered cars still hoping to make the race. Zane Smith was the highest qualifier of the four in twenty-ninth ahead of Austin Hill (thirty-second) and Chandler Smith (forty-first), while Conor Daly was unable to set a time after an electrical short burned a hole in his car’s oil line.
Daly, who told The Checkered Flag on Friday that he hoped to race alongside his close friends Pastrana and Johnson, will have to beat Hill in their Duel race on Thursday to qualify.
Qualifying results
Round #1
| Position | Number | Driver | Team | Manufacturer | Best Time | Best Speed (mph) | Margin |
| 1 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 49.717 | 181.025 | Leader |
| 2 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | Stewart-Haas Racing | Ford | 49.869 | 180.473 | + 0.152 |
| 3 | 5 | Kyle Larson | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 49.870 | 180.469 | + 0.153 |
| 4 | 22 | Joey Logano | Team Penske | Ford | 49.881 | 180.429 | + 0.164 |
| 5 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Stewart-Haas Racing | Ford | 49.903 | 180.35 | + 0.186 |
| 6 | 8 | Kyle Busch | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 49.920 | 180.288 | + 0.203 |
| 7 | 24 | William Byron | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 49.926 | 180.267 | + 0.209 |
| 8 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Team Penske | Ford | 49.927 | 180.263 | + 0.210 |
| 9 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Team Penske | Ford | 49.965 | 180.126 | + 0.248 |
| 10 | 21 | Harrison Burton | Wood Brothers Racing | Ford | 49.996 | 180.014 | + 0.279 |
| 11 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | 23XI Racing | Toyota | 49.997 | 180.011 | + 0.280 |
| 12 | 99 | Daniel Suárez | Trackhouse Racing Team | Chevrolet | 50.022 | 179.921 | + 0.305 |
| 13 | 17 | Chris Buescher | RFK Racing | Ford | 50.031 | 179.888 | + 0.314 |
| 14 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 50.033 | 179.881 | + 0.316 |
| 15 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Trackhouse Racing Team | Chevrolet | 50.038 | 179.863 | + 0.321 |
| 16 | 41 | Ryan Preece | Stewart-Haas Racing | Ford | 50.042 | 179.849 | + 0.325 |
| 17 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Stewart-Haas Racing | Ford | 50.088 | 179.684 | + 0.371 |
| 18 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | RFK Racing | Ford | 50.091 | 179.673 | + 0.374 |
| 19 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 50.107 | 179.616 | + 0.390 |
| 20 | 45 | Tyler Reddick | 23XI Racing | Toyota | 50.108 | 179.612 | + 0.391 |
| 21 | 20 | Christopher Bell | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 50.140 | 179.497 | + 0.423 |
| 22 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 50.182 | 179.347 | + 0.465 |
| 23 | 84 | Jimmie Johnson | Legacy Motor Club | Chevrolet | 50.202 | 179.276 | + 0.485 |
| 24 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 50.205 | 179.265 | + 0.488 |
| 25 | 67 | Travis Pastrana | 23XI Racing | Toyota | 50.208 | 179.254 | + 0.491 |
| 26 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 50.236 | 179.154 | + 0.519 |
| 27 | 43 | Erik Jones | Legacy Motor Club | Chevrolet | 50.280 | 178.998 | + 0.563 |
| 28 | 42 | Noah Gragson | Legacy Motor Club | Chevrolet | 50.296 | 178.941 | + 0.579 |
| 29 | 36 | Zane Smith* | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 50.318 | 178.862 | + 0.601 |
| 30 | 16 | A.J. Allmendinger | Kaulig Racing | Chevrolet | 50.332 | 178.813 | + 0.615 |
| 31 | 31 | Justin Haley | Kaulig Racing | Chevrolet | 50.346 | 178.763 | + 0.629 |
| 32 | 62 | Austin Hill* | Beard Motorsports | Chevrolet | 50.375 | 178.66 | + 0.658 |
| 33 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 50.413 | 178.525 | + 0.696 |
| 34 | 38 | Todd Gilliland | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 50.504 | 178.204 | + 0.787 |
| 35 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | JTG Daugherty Racing | Chevrolet | 50.583 | 177.925 | + 0.866 |
| 36 | 78 | B.J. McLeod | Live Fast Motorsports | Chevrolet | 50.609 | 177.834 | + 0.892 |
| 37 | 51 | Cody Ware | Rick Ware Racing | Ford | 50.799 | 177.169 | + 1.082 |
| 38 | 15 | Riley Herbst* | Rick Ware Racing | Ford | 50.891 | 176.849 | + 1.174 |
| 39 | 77 | Ty Dillon | Spire Motorsports | Chevrolet | 51.045 | 176.315 | + 1.328 |
| 40 | 7 | Corey LaJoie | Spire Motorsports | Chevrolet | 51.053 | 176.287 | + 1.336 |
| 41 | 13 | Chandler Smith* | Kaulig Racing | Chevrolet | 51.422 | 175.022 | + 1.705 |
| 42 | 50 | Conor Daly* | The Money Team Racing | Chevrolet | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for Cup points
Bold – Open car that is locked in
Underscore – Open car, have to qualify on Duel result
Round #2
| Position | Number | Driver | Team | Manufacturer | Best Time | Best Speed (mph) | Margin |
| 1 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 49.536 | 181.686 | Leader |
| 2 | 5 | Kyle Larson | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 49.708 | 181.057 | + 0.172 |
| 3 | 24 | William Byron | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 49.799 | 180.727 | + 0.263 |
| 4 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Stewart-Haas Racing | Ford | 49.800 | 180.723 | + 0.264 |
| 5 | 22 | Joey Logano | Team Penske | Ford | 49.803 | 180.712 | + 0.267 |
| 6 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | Stewart-Haas Racing | Ford | 49.817 | 180.661 | + 0.281 |
| 7 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Team Penske | Ford | 49.985 | 180.054 | + 0.449 |
| 8 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Team Penske | Ford | 49.996 | 180.014 | + 0.460 |
| 9 | 21 | Harrison Burton | Wood Brothers Racing | Ford | 50.070 | 179.748 | + 0.534 |
| 10 | 8 | Kyle Busch | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | N/A | N/A | N/A |