BRISTOL, Tenn. – Chase Elliott continued Hendrick Motorsports’ recent hot streak in qualifying by capturing the Busch Pole Award for the Food City 500 on Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Elliott piloted his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to a lap of 14.568 seconds (131.713 mph) in the third and final knockout round, earning his fifth-career pole in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and first on a non-superspeedway track.
The Dawsonville, Ga., native will seek his first Bristol victory on Sunday afternoon.
“This is awesome,” Elliott said. “I’ve really been wanting a pole outside of Daytona or Talladega for a long time now, and I feel like I was finally able to contribute from my end more and get a pole that my team certainly deserves. We had a fast NAPA Chevy and I appreciate everyone’s efforts, because we’ve been working really hard as a team to try and get better.
“Ryan (Blaney) asked me if this was payback for Phoenix, and I feel like he did me a bit of a favor, because I think he messed up a little bit in (turns) three and four,” Elliott added. “A great effort here.”
Joining Elliott on the front row Sunday will be his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron, who timed in second-fastest at 14.606 seconds (131.371 mph) with the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet.
Bristol marks the second week in a row that Hendrick cars have locked out the front row in qualifying.
“To be one-two for Hendrick Motorsports two weeks in a row is a great feeling,” Byron noted. “I hate to be on the second end of it, but it’s still fun to start on the front row and I feel like we’re making strides.”
Blaney’s Ford and Erik Jones’ Toyota will share the second row of the grid on Sunday, followed by Denny Hamlin in fifth.
Aric Almirola, Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman and Brad Keselowski completed the top 12 and all advanced through each of the three knockout rounds.
Kevin Harvick was the first driver who failed to advance out of the second round and will start 13th (14.706/130.477) on Sunday with the No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang.
Though many drivers outside the front dozen were frustrated after qualifying, Harvick put on a smile and put Friday’s results in perspective with a grain of salt.
“My car was good; I just missed my mark the first two laps in the center of the corner and got out of the traction compound,” Harvick noted. “It’s just as wide as the car, and I was just a little bit too aggressive and didn’t keep it where it needed to be.
“I finally calmed down on the third lap and got a good lap, but just came up one spot short.”
Other notables mired in the middle of the grid include Alex Bowman (14th), Kyle Larson (16th), Kyle Busch (17th), Daniel Suarez (20th) and Martin Truex Jr. (23rd).
Meanwhile, Chris Buescher led the list of drivers knocked out in round one of qualifying Friday, with the No. 37 Bush’s Beans Chevrolet gridding up 25th (14.914/128.658) for Sunday’s 500-lap event.
“We just missed it a little bit. I thought we were going to be a little bit better than what we were,” Buescher said. “We were just a little bit tight in the center (of the corner). It’s not like we were way off on balance. The grip strip came in through Xfinity and K&N practice and we went faster than our mock run. We just didn’t quite make it.”
Of note, Blaney set a new track record for the .533-mile, high-banked concrete oval with his round-two lap of 14.528 seconds (132.076 mph), bettering the mark of 131.407 mph set by Denny Hamlin in 2015.
To view complete qualifying results, advance to the next page.