HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Unseasonably warm temperatures in the high-80s, sunny skies and a championship vibe greeted teams at Homestead-Miami Speedway for Friday‘s all-important Busch Light Pole Qualifying session to set the grid for Sunday‘s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race (3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Chase Briscoe ultimately proved himself coolest among the competitors and conditions, claiming the top starting spot with a lap of 166.687 mph in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota — the second pole position of the season — and second in just the last three weeks (Talladega) — for the 31-year-old Indiana native.
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“I feel confident we can contend, but I wouldn‘t say I was the dominant car,” Briscoe said. “I definitely feel really really good about it [the race]. I think we‘ll be in the mix tomorrow, and if we execute, definitely up there.”
Briscoe, a three-time race winner this year, edged his JGR teammate Denny Hamlin by only .017 seconds to claim his 11th career pole. Importantly, however, Hamlin‘s front-row start in the No. 11 JGR Toyota leads the three drivers still championship eligible heading into Sunday‘s season finale.
The championship leader, Hendrick Motorsports‘ Kyle Larson, will roll off the 40-car grid from fourth position in the No. 5 Chevrolet. The final driver still vying for the season trophy, JGR‘s Christopher Bell, was sixth quickest in the No. 20 JGR Toyota.
Larson holds a commanding 67-point advantage on Bell and a 70-point edge on Hamlin, a three-time Homestead winner. The two JGR teammates both acknowledged all week the long odds of taking the season trophy away from Larson, who is looking to earn a third series title and could become the first driver to win consecutive championships since Jimmie Johnson won five straight from 2006-2010.
Larson, who won in the series‘ last race here in March of 2025, said he wasn‘t entirely satisfied with his qualifying work — his Chevrolet better than he showed on the lap around the South Florida 1.5-miler. But he likes his chances on Sunday and the forward position he‘ll start from.
“We qualified well and it‘s a long race,” Larson said. “I‘m happy to qualify in the front two rows. … we‘ll see. There‘s going to be fast guys coming from behind, too, so just hoping we can stay in the top 10 all day.”
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The 33-year-old Californian Larson needs only nine points to earn his third title, and on Saturday characterized his team‘s approach to the weekend as “extremely loose” and “pretty relaxed” — revealing crew members were debating Saturday if a hot dog is a sandwich and if cereal is a soup. Larson, smiling, said “no” to both.
23XI Racing‘s Tyler Reddick was third quickest in the session, giving Toyota a top three sweep at the front of the Homestead grid for the third time in the last four races here.
Behind Larson is Team Penske‘s Austin Cindric — with Bell, Hendrick teammates Chase Elliott and last week‘s Martinsville Speedway winner William Byron, Penske‘s Ryan Blaney and Spire Motorsports Daniel Suárez rounding out the top 10 starting positions.
Of note, the 2012 series champion Brad Keselowski hit the wall exciting Turn 4 on his qualifying lap, spinning his No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Ford Mustang down into the inside wall. He was okay but will make his final full-time start for the team from last place on the 40-car grid.
“I was trying to run the bottom lane in (turns) three and four because the track was so slick, and wanted to see if I could find something down there,” Keselowski said, “and I found something, just wasn’t what I was looking for.”
Although Hamlin just missed out on the pole position Saturday, he was honored for his series-best six on the season — the largest single-season haul of his career.