Starting Lineup | Qualifying Results
Chase Elliott won his fourth career pole, and third at Daytona International Speedway, in qualifying for Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400.
Elliott led a Hendrick Motorsports sweep of the front-row for the 160-lap race (MRN, 6 p.m. ET) with a fast lap of 194.045 mph in his No. 9 Chevrolet.
“Our Hooters Chevy has been nice all weekend,” Elliott said. “We made a couple of changes actually at the end of that last practice before the rain and made it go a little faster. I hope that translates to a good driving car tomorrow night.”
All of Elliott’s poles in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series have come at restrictor-plate tracks with his two others at Daytona coming at the Daytona 500 (2016, 2017) along with his pole at Talladega Superspeedway in the 2016 Spring race.
Daytona Pole Winners | All-Time Pole Winners
Alex Bowman, who won the pole for this year’s Daytona 500, joins Elliott on the the front row after turning a lap of 193.046 mph in the No. 88 Chevrolet.
“It’s always great working with your teammates and obviously with these speedway races there is a lot that goes on and a lot that can happen,” Bowman said. “You look at some of the other manufacturers that have done a good job of working together. Hopefully we can take some notes from them and with our cars starting up front, it makes that a little easier.”
Brad Keselowski qualified third to tie his best career start at Daytona with a lap of 192.802 mph in his No. 2 Ford.
“We’re the top Ford and were pretty close to second, but a long ways from the pole,” Keselowski said. “We’ll see what we can learn, but, all in all, starting up front is always a good omen for these plate tracks.”
Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, defending race winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Newman, Michael McDowell, Clint Bowyer, 2018 Daytona 500 winner Austin Dillon, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top 12.
Johnson’s start is his best of the season.
“We thought it had good speed so that was pretty awesome to have in race trim alone,” Johnson said. “Sometimes what is fast in the pack doesn’t convert to single car, so we were hopeful we would be good today. And man, the cars were real fast today. Its one of those perfect storms where it drafted really well and qualified really well.”
McDowell’s eighth-place starting spot is his best in 15 starts at Daytona.
“I’m just real excited for everybody at Front Row Motorsports to qualify in the top eight,” McDowell said. “That’s a huge accomplishment and I can’t thank everybody enough for their hard work and Ford Performance and Roush Yates Engines.”
No Toyota drivers were in the top 12 to mark the first time since the 2017 Talladega Fall race.
Timothy Peters failed to qualify for the race in the No. 92 Ford.
