Ross Chastain Takes Daytona Pole as NASCAR Chase Bubble Gets Interesting
Ross Chastain will lead the NASCAR Cup Series field to green at Daytona, but Ryan Preece's fourth-place qualifying run adds another wrinkle to the fight for the final Chase spots.
Ross Chastain secured his first pole of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season at Daytona International Speedway, leading the field to green in the Coke Zero Sugar 400. The final race before NASCAR's return to The Chase, Chastain posted the fastest lap of the final qualifying round at 48.808 seconds and 184.396 mph, edging Chris Buescher for the top starting spot.
Buescher qualified second at 184.204 mph. However, the battle for the remaining postseason spots took an interesting turn, with Ryan Preece securing the fourth starting position. Ryan Preece, currently outside the Chase cut line, qualified fourth with a 184.121-mph lap, closely followed by Shane van Gisbergen in sixth and Austin Cindric in eighth.
While the drivers at the front have a clean slate, those in the back battle for their postseason hopes, with pack racing and drafting strategy playing significant roles.
Written by urgent.news from Yahoo Sports's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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