Native Hoosier scores meaningful NASCAR Brickyard 400 pole

Chase Briscoe has spoken ad nauseum about how much the Brickyard 400 means to him.

And now, in a season in which he has already won a race and qualified on pole for the Daytona 500, he can add pole sitter for the NASCAR Cup Series race at the Indianapolis 400 to his resume. The Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 will lead the field to green on Sunday afternoon.

Briscoe earned this meaningful achievement with a 49.136 second around the venerable 2.5-mile super oval and will be joined on the front row by Toyota stablemate Bubba Wallace.

“Our team just does an incredible job of making adjustments – even after practice, we were a little bit off,” Briscoe said. “Today was a great example of that. We just put in so effort and work. All of this week – we were practicing, whether it be race runs or qualifying runs in the simulator and just spending extra hours doing it – it make a difference. Super, super special today – just to qualify on the pole here.

“The Daytona 500 one was cool, going three in a row was cool, but being able to set on the pole here is just so special. I got out of the car, and hearing the crowd screaming – I don’t have that happen anywhere else, so it is just so cool to experience that. I was on the other side of the fence when Tony (Stewart) and (Ryan) Newman, and those other guys were doing it – being one of those Indiana kids, cheering for their Indiana driver, so now to be on the other side of the fence is special for sure.”

In addition to Briscoe and Wallace, the top-five qualifiers are all Toyota drivers with Erik Jones, Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs all starting near the front. That gives Briscoe a lot of confidence for Sunday too.

“Yeah, I didn’t even realize that until we were coming up here that Toyota is one through five,” Briscoe said. “That is an incredible testament to the attention to detail that Toyota brings. They do such a good job of preparing myself as a driver, but even the race teams – to give them all of the tools that they need, so for us to be one through five is really special. I think our cars as a whole, as a manufacturer, are going to be really good tomorrow. Hopefully, I can win it, but if not, hopefully another TRD car can.”

With Briscoe speaking so passionately about Indianapolis and the Brickyard, one would think that would evoke pressure but instead, he says it gives him another figurative gear.

“It honestly is not pressure,” Briscoe said. “For me, you just find this extra 5-10 percent. I’ve talked Tony (Stewart) about it. When you are from Indiana, and you come here – you’ve seen it with Tony and (Ryan) Newman. Jeff Gordon was kind of a transplant to Indiana, but certainly with Tony – you just find that, like I said, extra 5-10 percent that you didn’t know you had and you really put that pressure on yourself when you come here.

“I think a lot of it is because of the Hoosier fan base gets behind you unlike anywhere else. There is no other race track that we go to, when I hear a driver from that state does the crowd go nuts. It is different in the state of Indiana, and for me to be that guy for the fans here, it is just really, really cool.”

For his part, Wallace was proud and disappointed in equal parts.

“I’m super frustrated,” Wallace told a group of reporters during his post-qualifying scrum. “But happy at the same time. Pissed off. Ecstatic. It’s a super weird feeling right now. I had no idea what kind of lap I put together.

“Obviously, it was a good one. Man. So close. Obviously, no one wants to finish second at anything. Motorsports or anything. A race. Qualifying. But this is a really good day and start to our Brickyard here in Indy. Our team has done a great job to bring us good cars and I appreciate that. That brings me a lot of joy. I need to find that last .1300 and that will keep me up. I need to do some homework.”

The starting spot is important for Wallace who enters this stretch run to the playoffs over the next month just 16 spots ahead of Ryan Preece for the final provisional spot, but also the one most at risk of being bumped if there is another new winner below them.    

In less optimistic Toyota news, Denny Hamlin will start at the rear in a backup car after crashing his primary in qualifying. He was fastest in practice earlier in the morning.

There’s trouble for @dennyhamlin on his qualifying lap! pic.twitter.com/mhYh8tzWLL

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 26, 2025

Hamlin suggested on social media afterwards that he just tried too hard, having a chance to win the pole for a crown jewel race that has eluded him over the past two decades.

Over send

— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) July 26, 2025

“I saw other guys had issue there and the wind picked up and made for pretty tight conditions off Turn 2,” Hamlin said after being released from the infield care center. If you’re not pointed right … I wasn’t pointed right.”

Hamlin said he has his work cut out for him in trying to win this race from the rear.

“There’s not a lot I can do about this today so tomorrow do the best I can and try to get all the points I can,” Hamlin said. “Getting stage points are going to be an impossibility with where we’re starting.”

Starting lineup