In the final minute of NASCAR Cup Series qualifying, it appeared that Chase Briscoe would land on pole at Road America (Wisc.) for Sunday’s Kwik Trip 250 presented by Jockey Made In America.
However, the other Chase in the field, Chase Elliott, would edge out Briscoe by 0.038 seconds to land his second pole of the season.
“I did a terrible job. I was more sideways than straight,” Briscoe said. “I feel like I gave up six-tenths easily in different corners. My team definitely deserves the pole but the driver doesn’t deserve the pole. I have to clean that up. We should be really good for tomorrow though. We have a really fast Ford and I have to put it together. I was overdriving so bad. I just gotta slow down. I have to learn from that. I have a really good car and that will be big for tomorrow. We will see if we can put it all together and get the driver to stop messing up. I think we should have a really good shot tomorrow.”
Elliott laid down a blistering pace on his way to pole, with a best speed of 108.407 mph.
“Hopefully, the results are the same tomorrow as they were last year,” Elliott said. “That’s what’s important. I just appreciate everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, from the engine shop to every department that has a hand in what we do to make our NAPA Chevy what it was today. We’ll try to go to work and see if we can get it driving like it needs to for tomorrow.
“I think it’s going to be really, really hard to pass, based on what I saw in practice. It would be nice to keep track position as long as we can. That’s always a tough thing at road courses — to manage that balance of what to do at what time. We’ll see, but we’re looking forward to it, for sure.”
The defending race winner at Road America, and current points leader will be looking for win number three of the season.
Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson will start third, with Chevrolet driver Tyler Reddick in fourth, and Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric rounding out the top-five.
Road course ringer Joey Hand had his best career qualifying effort, with a stout ninth place result.
Toyota struggled as a whole during qualifying, with the highest running driver being Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch in 13th.