Briscoe grabs maiden pole at first WWTR Cup race

Chase Briscoe will start from pole for the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career in the inaugural race at World Wide Technology Raceway.

Briscoe put down the fastest lap in the final round of Saturday qualifying. The pole-winning speed from the No.14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford was 138.274 mph (32.544 seconds).

“It’s funny – the first round I felt like I under drove it extremely bad and in the second round I overdrove,” Briscoe said. “I got really loose getting into [Turn] 3 and felt like I gave away what advantage I had in [Turns] 1 and 2.

“It’s a testament to these HighPoint.com guys, they did a really good job of bringing a really good race car. We were obviously really good at Phoenix and have a pretty close package to that, so we’ll see if we can have the same result as Phoenix.

“We’ve got the best starting spot for that. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Austin Cindric will join Briscoe on the front row, his best lap was 137.775 mph.

Christopher Bell qualified third (137.560 mph), ahead of Tyler Reddick (137.514 mph), and Ryan Blaney in fifth (137.468 mph). Blaney is the third of five Ford drivers starting inside the top five.

Denny Hamlin qualified sixth (137.363 mph), with Joey Logano seventh (137.112 mph), Aric Almirola eighth (137.112 mph), Harrison Burton ninth (137.078 mph), and Ross Chastain completing the top 10 (136.903 mph).

Ford has six of the top 10 starters in the Enjoy Illinois 300.

Qualifying 11th through 15th were Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Cole Custer, and Kyle Larson. Chase Elliott qualified 16th.

Kevin Harvick qualified 20th, William Byron 24th, and Alex Bowman 25th. Brad Keselowski was 30th with Zane Smith in 32nd for his Cup Series debut subbing for Chris Buescher.

Ben Rhodes and Parker Kligerman did not make a qualifying attempt. Rhodes crashed in Saturday’s practice and Kaulig Racing is still repairing the No.16 Chevrolet for AJ Allmendinger to drive Sunday. Kligerman’s car caught fire Saturday and Rick Ware Racing is preparing the backup car.

UP NEXT: Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway at 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday.