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Motorsport
Motorsport
Sport
Jim Utter

Elliott beats Briscoe for Road America Cup pole

Chase Briscoe had been fastest in practice and was leading the way in the final round of qualifying until Elliott laid down a blistering lap (108.407 mph) as the last car out to claim the pole.

Elliott, who won this race a year ago, has two wins on the 2022 season but has yet to win on a road course.

“It was a little more fun than I thought it was going to be, that’s for sure,” Elliott said. “I hope the results are the same tomorrow as they were last year – that’s what’s important.

“I appreciate everybody at HMS from the engine shop to every department that has a hand in what we do to make our Chevy what it was today. We’ll try to go to work and try to 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 there in practice. It would be nice to keep track position as long as we can. Always a tough thing on road courses to manage that balance.”

The pole is the second of the season for Elliott and 11th of his career.

Briscoe, who ended up second-fastest (108.376 mph) said he could have done better on his lap.

“I did a terrible job – I was more sideways than I was going straight,” he said. “My team definitely deserved the pole; the driver doesn’t deserve the pole. I just didn’t do a very good job.

“I got to clean that up. But we should be really good for tomorrow I think.”

Kyle Larson ended up third, Tyler Reddick was fourth and Austin Cindric rounded out the top-five.

Completing the top-10 starting lineup are Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher, Alex Bowman, Joey Hand and Cole Custer.

Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph
1 9 United States Chase Elliott Chevrolet 1 2'14.427     108.407
2 14 United States Chase Briscoe Ford 1 2'14.465 0.038 0.038 108.376
3 5 United States Kyle Larson Chevrolet 1 2'14.672 0.245 0.207 108.210
4 8 United States Tyler Reddick Chevrolet 2 2'14.740 0.313 0.068 108.155
5 2 United States Austin Cindric Ford 1 2'14.780 0.353 0.040 108.123
6 34 United States Michael McDowell Ford 1 2'14.793 0.366 0.013 108.112
7 17 United States Chris Buescher Ford 3 2'15.112 0.685 0.319 107.857
8 48 United States Alex Bowman Chevrolet 1 2'15.199 0.772 0.087 107.788
9 15 United States Joey Hand Ford 1 2'15.249 0.822 0.050 107.748
10 41 United States Cole Custer Ford 1 2'15.586 1.159 0.337 107.480

Round 1 / Group B

Buescher topped Group B qualifying with an average lap speed of 108.299 mph.

Bowman ended up second-fastest at 108.262 mph but briefly went off-course after posting his quick lap.

McDowell ended up third (108.230 mph) and Elliott and Hand joined him in advancing to Round 2.

At one point midway through the session, William Byron’s brakes locked up and he went off-course in Turn 5 but did not appear to suffer any damage to his No. 24 Chevrolet.

Among those who failed to advance to the final round were Ross Chastain (who had a brake rotor problem), Kyle Busch and A.J. Allmendinger.

Busch’s No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team ended up having to change engines and he will have to start Sunday’s race from the rear of the field.

Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph
1 17 United States Chris Buescher Ford 1 2'14.561     108.299
2 48 United States Alex Bowman Chevrolet 1 2'14.607 0.046 0.046 108.262
3 34 United States Michael McDowell Ford 1 2'14.647 0.086 0.040 108.230
4 9 United States Chase Elliott Chevrolet 1 2'14.711 0.150 0.064 108.178
5 15 United States Joey Hand Ford 1 2'14.848 0.287 0.137 108.068
6 6 United States Brad Keselowski Ford 3 2'14.907 0.346 0.059 108.021
7 1 United States Ross Chastain Chevrolet 3 2'14.929 0.368 0.022 108.003
8 18 United States Kyle Busch Toyota 1 2'14.979 0.418 0.050 107.963
9 11 United States Denny Hamlin Toyota 1 2'15.043 0.482 0.064 107.912
10 16 United States A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 3 2'15.419 0.858 0.376 107.613
11 45 United States Kurt Busch Toyota 2 2'15.471 0.910 0.052 107.571
12 21 United States Harrison Burton Ford 3 2'15.483 0.922 0.012 107.562
13 10 United States Aric Almirola Ford 3 2'15.641 1.080 0.158 107.437
14 23 United States Bubba Wallace Toyota 2 2'15.663 1.102 0.022 107.419
15 43 United States Erik Jones Chevrolet 3 2'15.710 1.149 0.047 107.382
16 4 United States Kevin Harvick Ford 3 2'15.780 1.219 0.070 107.327
17 24 United States William Byron Chevrolet 3 2'15.857 1.296 0.077 107.266
18 51 United States Cody Ware Ford 2 2'16.202 1.641 0.345 106.994
19 27 Netherlands Loris Hezemans Ford 4 2'18.129 3.568 1.927 105.501

Round 1 / Group A

Briscoe, who was fastest in Saturday’s lone practice, led the way in Group A qualifying with an average lap speed of 108.610 mph.

Reddick ended up second-fastest (108.198 mph) while Larson was third (108.187 mph).

Also advancing to Round 2 were Cindric and Custer.

Among those failing to advance to the final round were Martin Truex Jr., Christopher Bell and the most recent Cup Series road course winner, Daniel Suarez.

Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph
1 14 United States Chase Briscoe Ford 1 2'14.175     108.610
2 8 United States Tyler Reddick Chevrolet 1 2'14.686 0.511 0.511 108.198
3 5 United States Kyle Larson Chevrolet 1 2'14.700 0.525 0.014 108.187
4 2 United States Austin Cindric Ford 1 2'14.769 0.594 0.069 108.132
5 41 United States Cole Custer Ford 1 2'14.988 0.813 0.219 107.956
6 19 United States Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 3 2'15.092 0.917 0.104 107.873
7 20 United States Christopher Bell Toyota 3 2'15.106 0.931 0.014 107.862
8 99 Mexico Daniel Suarez Chevrolet 3 2'15.231 1.056 0.125 107.762
9 22 United States Joey Logano Ford 3 2'15.234 1.059 0.003 107.760
10 12 United States Ryan Blaney Ford 2 2'15.371 1.196 0.137 107.651
11 3 United States Austin Dillon Chevrolet 3 2'15.396 1.221 0.025 107.631
12 77 United States Josh Bilicki Chevrolet 3 2'15.700 1.525 0.304 107.390
13 42 United States Ty Dillon Chevrolet 3 2'16.158 1.983 0.458 107.029
14 38 United States Todd Gilliland Ford 3 2'16.222 2.047 0.064 106.978
15 47 United States Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Chevrolet 3 2'16.279 2.104 0.057 106.934
16 31 United States Justin Haley Chevrolet 3 2'16.528 2.353 0.249 106.739
17 7 United States Corey Lajoie Chevrolet 4 2'16.560 2.385 0.032 106.714
18 78 United Kingdom Kyle Tilley Ford 2 2'20.402 6.227 3.842 103.793
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