Ross Chastain wins the pole for NASCAR’s regular-season finale at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Ross Chastain took the pole Friday for NASCAR’s regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway.

Chastain covered the 2 1/2-mile superspeedway in 48.808 seconds, five-hundredths of a second faster than Chris Buescher in the second and final round of qualifying.

“It’s almost indescribable,” Chastain said. “This is a life achievement. This is a moment I will never forget.”

Chastain, who already has been eliminated from playoff contention, and Buescher will share the front row in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 on Saturday night. Buescher is already locked into the 16-car postseason field.

Austin Hill qualified third, followed by Ryan Preece and Riley Herbst. Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch, Austin Cindric, Joey Logano and Kyle Larson rounded out the top 10 starting spots.

Trackhouse Racing landed all three of its drivers in the top seven, with van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch also turning in solid qualifying runs for the team.

Bubba Wallace, Cindric, van Gisbergen, Preece and Brad Keselowski are the five drivers vying for the final three spots in the 10-race Chase for the championship. Wallace and Cindric are close to being locked into the Chase and simply need to avoid debacles at Daytona on Saturday.

Keselowski is a long shot, acknowledging he “needs like a miracle.” to advance. That leaves van Gisbergen and Preece to battle for the 16th and final spot in the playoff field. Van Gisbergen leads Preece by 31 points — a relatively small cushion that could be quickly trimmed in the opening stages.

In previous years, the winner of Daytona’s summer race would earn a spot in the playoffs. But NASCAR tweaked its playoff format this year, no longer guaranteeing a postseason berth to race winners and giving more credence to season-long results.

Chastain, meanwhile, will use the qualifying effort in his home state as a launching point for the Cup Series’ stretch run and into the 2027 season, which begins back at Daytona in February.

“You have to be better coming back,” Chastain said. “This the first crack at it. … This is what we’re looking for, and it’s a really good feeling.”

___

See AP’s full auto racing coverage here