Alex Bowman placed No. 48 on pole for Sunday’s Daytona 500, becoming the first driver to start from the front row in this race for four consecutive years.
Bowman took pole with a lap of 191.261 mph. He won pole for this race in 2018.
“It’s a test for these guys and everyone at the Hendrick Motorsports store,” said Bowman of Wednesday’s pole position. “They work a lot on these super speed cars. They look great when they reach the race track. Our Ally Camaro has been very fast since we unloaded and they focused a lot on trying to get pole for the Daytona 500. That means a lot to us and we did it. “
Bowman’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron qualified in second place with a lap of 190.219 mph to secure a spot in the Daytona 500.
This is the seventh time that Hendrick Motorsports has swept the first row to the 500. Hendrick Motorsports has won the Daytona 500 pole in six of the past seven years.
The rest of the top five were Aric Almirola (190,178 mph), Bubba Wallace (189,577) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (189,565).
“Everything is getting ready to be a big ending for us,” said Wallace. “We just have to go through this. It’s the same feeling I had in 2018 for my first 500 (where he finished second). The way things are going … we have to keep the momentum going. “
Daytona 500 qualification results
Ryan Preece and David Ragan each secured two places in the Daytona 500 for non-chartered cars. The last two places for non-chartered cars will be determined by Thursday’s qualifying races.
“My entire racing career has been filled with moments like this,” said Preece. “This was like no other day for me.”
Except just before qualifying, Preece realized he was wearing the wrong driver’s uniform and had to go back and change his clothes.
“That was the most stressful thing I’ve ever done,” said Preece.
NASCAR said Noah Gragson’s car failed the prequalification inspection three times and was not allowed to make a qualifying attempt. He will start at the rear of the qualifying race. As part of the penalty for inspection failures, a crew member was ejected.
Qualifying was delayed because of a power outage that occurred about 15 minutes before the start of the session. The start of the session was delayed by 10 minutes.