Alex Bowman wins Daytona 500 pole yet again, Johnson and Pastrana lock in

If you placed a bet saying anyone besides Hendrick Motorsports would win the Daytona 500 pole, you might be delusional.

Hendrick cars swept the top three in Wednesday night’s qualifying for the second year in a row, with Alex Bowman clearing defending pole-sitter Kyle Larson by over a tenth of a second. Besides being his third career Daytona 500 pole after 2018 and 2021, Bowman has qualified on the front row a record six years in a row.

A Chevrolet has won the race pole every year since 2013, while a Hendrick car or a technical partner has done so for the past nine editions.

“I don’t really feel like I tried to do anything different than the other guys,” Bowman said in his post-qualifying press conference. He had signed a contract extension with Hendrick through 2026 earlier in the day. “Just try to kind of let the race car go where it wants and not bind it up.

“As a driver, really all you can do is get the best launch you can, hit your shift points right, try to run the best you can, not mess it up. Glad I didn’t mess it up. I was kind of just letting the race car go where it wanted to.”

The ten-car second round of qualifying exclusively consisted of Chevrolets and Fords, with every Hendrick driver but Chase Elliott advancing. Kyle Busch of Richard Childress Racing was the lone non-Hendrick Chevrolet in Round #2, but had his time disallowed after going below the double yellow line. Aric Almirola led the six Fords who cracked the second round in fourth.

Toyota’s Bubba Wallace barely missed out on Round #2 after qualifying eleventh, just .001 behind tenth-placed Harrison Burton. While no Toyotas made the second round, Wallace’s 23XI Racing team-mate Travis Pastrana had plenty of reason to celebrate as he qualified twenty-fifth to guarantee himself a spot in the race as the second-best car without a charter.

By locking himself on qualifying time, Pastrana is set to make his Cup Series début despite having last run a superspeedway race in the Xfinity Series in 2013.

“I shifted a little bit early on two and didn’t lift enough shifting to fifth so I had to double let go and I thought I just blew it,” recalled Pastrana. “I look at Bubba’s time and the car definitely had a little bit more. This team helped me to get there and like Kurt (Busch) just told me, now it’s time to learn. We’ll go to work tomorrow and then we’re in the 500, so cool.

“We’ll party Sunday night, but this is a huge weight off my shoulders. I begged, bartered, and did everything but stealing from everyone to be here.”

Also making the race on time was Jimmie Johnson in twenty-third, boasting the opposite of Pastrana’s lack of Cup experience as a seven-time series champion and twice-500 winner. Incidentally, Johnson’s Cup successes came in the #48 that Bowman currently drives.

“Came down here for my rookie season when the #48 team was just started up. We had to get in through qualifying. That was a very stressful moment. So I’ve kind of fallen back on that experience, although it was twenty-something years ago now,” said Johnson. “There was a different feeling knowing there’s something bad that can happen, you might not be in the race. Did have that sense at the (Indianapolis) 500.

“But once I rolled off pit lane, fortunately that went away. That’s my first time in a plate car with this new Next Gen car. The experience was way different than I anticipated. The ride quality was much rougher. I didn’t know if that was supposed to happen or not.

“Then when I pulled it into fifth gear, which is weird to go to fifth gear, the drag of the vehicle, the rpm dropped really far. I didn’t know that was normal, so the entire lap I made around, I thought something was potentially wrong with the car. The RPM was really low, didn’t feel very fast. Once I crossed the finish line, I heard we had a good lap. It was stressful out there, more stressful than I intended it to be.”

With Johnson and Pastrana locked in, only two spots remain for the four non-chartered cars still hoping to make the race. Zane Smith was the highest qualifier of the four in twenty-ninth ahead of Austin Hill (thirty-second) and Chandler Smith (forty-first), while Conor Daly was unable to set a time after an electrical short burned a hole in his car’s oil line.

Daly, who told The Checkered Flag on Friday that he hoped to race alongside his close friends Pastrana and Johnson, will have to beat Hill in their Duel race on Thursday to qualify.

Qualifying results

Round #1

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Best Time	Best Speed (mph)	Margin
1	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	49.717	181.025	Leader
2	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	49.869	180.473	+ 0.152
3	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	49.870	180.469	+ 0.153
4	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	49.881	180.429	+ 0.164
5	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	49.903	180.35	+ 0.186
6	8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	49.920	180.288	+ 0.203
7	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	49.926	180.267	+ 0.209
8	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	49.927	180.263	+ 0.210
9	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	49.965	180.126	+ 0.248
10	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	49.996	180.014	+ 0.279
11	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	49.997	180.011	+ 0.280
12	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	50.022	179.921	+ 0.305
13	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	50.031	179.888	+ 0.314
14	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	50.033	179.881	+ 0.316
15	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	50.038	179.863	+ 0.321
16	41	Ryan Preece	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	50.042	179.849	+ 0.325
17	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	50.088	179.684	+ 0.371
18	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	50.091	179.673	+ 0.374
19	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	50.107	179.616	+ 0.390
20	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	50.108	179.612	+ 0.391
21	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	50.140	179.497	+ 0.423
22	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	50.182	179.347	+ 0.465
23	84	Jimmie Johnson	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	50.202	179.276	+ 0.485
24	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	50.205	179.265	+ 0.488
25	67	Travis Pastrana	23XI Racing	Toyota	50.208	179.254	+ 0.491
26	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	50.236	179.154	+ 0.519
27	43	Erik Jones	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	50.280	178.998	+ 0.563
28	42	Noah Gragson	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	50.296	178.941	+ 0.579
29	36	Zane Smith*	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	50.318	178.862	+ 0.601
30	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	50.332	178.813	+ 0.615
31	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	50.346	178.763	+ 0.629
32	62	Austin Hill*	Beard Motorsports	Chevrolet	50.375	178.66	+ 0.658
33	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	50.413	178.525	+ 0.696
34	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	50.504	178.204	+ 0.787
35	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	50.583	177.925	+ 0.866
36	78	B.J. McLeod	Live Fast Motorsports	Chevrolet	50.609	177.834	+ 0.892
37	51	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	50.799	177.169	+ 1.082
38	15	Riley Herbst*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	50.891	176.849	+ 1.174
39	77	Ty Dillon	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	51.045	176.315	+ 1.328
40	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	51.053	176.287	+ 1.336
41	13	Chandler Smith*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	51.422	175.022	+ 1.705
42	50	Conor Daly*	The Money Team Racing	Chevrolet	N/A	N/A	N/A

Round #2

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Best Time	Best Speed (mph)	Margin
1	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	49.536	181.686	Leader
2	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	49.708	181.057	+ 0.172
3	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	49.799	180.727	+ 0.263
4	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	49.800	180.723	+ 0.264
5	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	49.803	180.712	+ 0.267
6	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	49.817	180.661	+ 0.281
7	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	49.985	180.054	+ 0.449
8	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	49.996	180.014	+ 0.460
9	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	50.070	179.748	+ 0.534
10	8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	N/A	N/A	N/A