Bubba Wallace becomes first black Cup pole winner in 60 years

For the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career, Bubba Wallace will start on the pole after topping qualifying for the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. In doing so, he became only the second black pole sitter in Cup history after Wendell Scott in 1962, and the third in any NASCAR national series with Bill Lester the other.

Wallace was the only driver of the thirty-seven entered to set a qualifying speed of over 190 miles per hour at 190.703 mph (118.497 km/h) with a lap time of 37.755 seconds. He led a trio of Toyotas as Joe Gibbs Racing allies Christopher Bell and Kyle Busch followed, with Wallace’s time being .160 quicker than Bell.

Besides being the maiden Cup pole for Wallace and his 23XI Racing team, the driver secured his sixth career national series pole and first since the 2014 Xfinity Series race at Dover. His previous best Cup starting spot was fourth at New Hampshire in July.

“Let’s go! First time pole sitter here,” Wallace said in a Twitter video. “So excited, so pumped, so proud of my team. McDonald’s Toyota Camry is super fast, the test that we had here a couple months ago definitely proved that.

“Now, we’re showing back up to come get the big trophy when it matters.”

Scott recorded his lone Cup pole for the Savannah Speedway race on 20 July 1962, where he finished eighth. Forty-one years later, Lester won his first of three poles in the Truck Series at Charlotte. Lester then added two more in 2005 at Kansas and Kentucky, and he scored a top five at the former.

Although a pole does not guarantee a victory on Sunday, it is a positive step for Wallace in his pursuit of a playoff spot. With four races remaining in the regular season, he is twentieth in points and arguably would have already been in position to qualify had he not been set back by pit crew mistakes.

Michigan has been a solid track for Wallace throughout his career, having won there in the Truck Series in 2017 (although his truck failed post-race inspection, the win stood as NASCAR’s current disqualification process had not been implemented). He also finished tenth in an Xfinity Series one-off there in 2021. In eight Cup starts at Michigan, his best finish is ninth at 2020 Race #1, while he placed nineteenth with 23XI last year.

Qualifying results

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Best Time	Best Speed (mph)
1	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	37.755	190.703
2	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	37.915	189.898
3	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	37.921	189.868
4	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	37.993	189.509
5	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	38.005	189.449
6	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	38.090	189.026
7	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	38.151	188.724
8	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	38.175	188.605
9	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	38.209	188.437
10	43	Erik Jones	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	38.366	187.666
11	45	Ty Gibbs*	23XI Racing	Toyota	38.218	188.393
12	16	Noah Gragson*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	38.248	188.245
13	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	38.270	188.137
14	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	38.287	188.053
15	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	38.306	187.960
16	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	38.333	187.828
17	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	38.380	187.598
18	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	38.385	187.573
19	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	38.448	187.266
20	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	38.463	187.193
21	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	38.482	187.100
22	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	38.502	187.003
23	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	38.526	186.887
24	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	38.551	186.766
25	42	Ty Dillon	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	38.617	186.446
26	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	38.639	186.340
27	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	38.641	186.331
28	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	38.697	186.061
29	15	J.J. Yeley*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	38.803	185.553
30	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	38.814	185.500
31	33	Austin Hill*	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	38.875	185.209
32	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	38.940	184.900
33	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	38.997	184.630
34	51	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	39.021	184.516
35	77	Josh Bilicki*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	39.308	183.169
36	78	B.J. McLeod*	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	39.308	183.169
37	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	39.317	183.127

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points