TRENDING College football updates Valkyries even WNBA Finals Kimi Antonelli on US GP pole NFL injury updates Brewers take Game 1 Story by Story by Chase Briscoe on Pole for NASCAR Cup Race at Talladega Jonathan Fjeld Sat, October 24, 2026 at 11:30 PM UTC · 2 min read About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement LINCOLN, Ala. -- Chase Briscoe is in the best position to go back-to-back in the fall NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, winning the pole for Sunday's Yellawood 500 and gaining points on the championship from the get-go.
Briscoe won the pole after running around the 2.66-mile oval in 51.466 seconds, just edging out Austin Hill for the pole. It's the Joe Gibbs Racing driver's first pole of the season, which is a surprise after he won a series-leading seven poles last season.
Briscoe is trying to win back-to-back fall races. If he's successful, he'll be the first driver to win back-to-back fall races since Joey Logano in 2015-16.
JGR qualified well with all four drivers set to start inside the top-10. Briscoe's teammates Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin will start sixth, eighth and ninth, respectively.
Hill and two other non-Chase drivers will line up behind Briscoe. Trackhouse Racing's Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen will start third and fourth, ahead of Chase drivers Chris Buescher and Bell. Alex Bowman (ninth) is the only other non-Chase driver starting inside of the top-10.
Cody Ware earned his best career start, clocking in 11th and just missing the final round for the pole. He started 11th in the February 2023 race at Auto Club Speedway but that was when the metric set the lineup after inclement weather canceled qualifying.
Ware's previous career-best qualifying effort was for the last drafting track race in the Cup Series. He qualified 25th for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway in August.
Ware outqualified these Chase drivers: Daniel Suarez (13th), Joey Logano (16th), William Byron (17th), Chase Elliott (18th), Ryan Preece (19th), Bubba Wallace (25th), Carson Hocevar (26th), Ryan Blaney (27th), Austin Cindric (28th) and Tyler Reddick (33rd).
Although Team Penske's Logano, Blaney and Cindric are starting toward the back, Logano has Berry nearby, starting 21st. Blaney and Cindric are also close together.
The first stage is set for 98 laps, giving teams time to get to the front of the field -- and to get used to a completely new package for Talladega.
Ahead of the race at Daytona in August, NASCAR made the first-ever change to the Cup Series' drafting track package. They reduced the horsepower from 510 to 465 and the spoiler height from seven inches to four inches. The package received some praise but NASCAR reduced the spoiler height to 3.5 inches afterward.
Sunday will be the first time the Cup Series has run this package after NASCAR didn't hold practice to test it out. The sanctioning body reportedly told teams to bring the 4-inch spoiler -- in case speeds were too high with the 3.5-inch spoiler -- but there is no indication NASCAR will make the change.
The Yellawood 500 goes green at Talladega just after 2 p.m. ET on NBC, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and MRN affiliates.
Source: Sports
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