NASCAR Cup Daytona starting lineup: Ross Chastain wins…

With a 48.809s (184.396mph) lap, Ross Chastain snagged pole position at Daytona International Speedway in the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. He will share the front row with Chris Buescher in the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford, who trailed Chastain by 0.051s in the final round of qualifying.

"I'm not sure that we expected that leaving the shop, to be honest," said Chastain, who previously won poles at Nashville (2023) and Watkins Glen (2024). You're always trying to be efficient -- you're trying to have the least amount of drag when you're coming to Daytona. And you're trying to put the most grip into it with this new package. Hats off to Trackhouse, ECR. To have our (engine) issues last week, and come right back and redeem all that ... it's a Busch Light pole award, and as a Busch Light driver, this means a lot."

Austin Hill will start third in his career-best qualifying result, while Chase hopeful Ryan Preece starts fourth, and Riley Herbst fifth.

Shane van Gisbergen, who enters this race with the 16th and final Chase spot, starts sixth, followed by Connor Zilisch in seventh, so all three Trackhouse cars are starting inside the top ten.

Austin Cindric starts eighth, Joey Logano ninth, and Kyle Larson tenth.

Round 1

Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford (Photo by: Chris Graythen - Getty Images)

For just the third time this season, a driver and team failed to qualify for the event as 41 cars entered the Daytona Cup race, with 40 available spots on the grid. There were five open cars vying for those final four positions alongside the 36 chartered teams.

Casey Mears (No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet), Daniel Dye (No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet, Joey Gase (No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet), and Corey Heim (No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota) all made the show.

Gase was the last to make it, making the show by 0.125s. Heim was the highest-qualifying open driver, as he will start 11th on the grid.

An unfortunate DNQ for a driver who failed to make the show was Gray Gaulding in the No. 66 'Garage 66' Ford, who bottomed out heavily in Turns 1/2. The rear diffuser didn't appear to be properly secured. Gaulding was attempting to make his first Cup start in three years.

Herbst set the early benchmark, leading halfway through the session with a 48.949s lap. As the final ten cars went out on track, Preece eclipsed Herbst with a 48.897s lap as he tries to fight his way into the Chase.

Logano was the final driver to advance into the second round, beating Heim by just 0.004s.

Weirdly, NASCAR's caution lights briefly came on during Ty Gibbs' lap, so series officials allowed him to cool the car down and take another qualifying run. He was 21st on his first run, but ended up 14th on his second attempt.

Round 2

Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet (Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)

Preece advanced into the pole round of qualifying with Herbst, A. Hill, Chastain, Buescher, Zilisch, Van Gisbergen, Cindric, Larson, and Logano.

The field went in order from tenth to first, so Preece was the final driver on the track. The laptimes picked up for most cars in the second round, with Logano going P1 with a 49.074s.

Cindric then jumped to the top of the carts with a 49.071s, but it didn't last long as Van Gisbergen went fastest of all with a 49.019s. He remained on provisional pole halfway through the session.

Buescher then blew SVG's time away with a 48.859s, a full tenth-and-a-half faster, but the bar kept getting raised as Chastain went to the top with a 48.808s. No one could match him, even Preece as he slotted in fourth among the top ten.

There were no incidents in qualifying. Of note, Herbst is suffering from "lingering effects" related to last week's heavy crash at New Hampshire, so Harrison Burton will drive his car in the Daytona Cup race.

The Melon Man was putting in work! 💪 pic.twitter.com/jGEsJLGWFj
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 28, 2026

NASCAR Cup Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona starting lineup

cla	#	driver	manufacturer	time	gap	mph
1	1	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	48.808		184.396
2	17	Chris Buescher	Ford	48.859	0.051	184.204
3	33	Austin Hill	Chevrolet	48.863	0.055	184.188
4	60	Ryan Preece	Ford	48.881	0.073	184.121
5	35	Riley Herbst (Harrison Burton will race the #35)	Toyota	48.976	0.168	183.763
6	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Chevrolet	49.019	0.211	183.602
7	88	Connor Zilisch	Chevrolet	49.020	0.212	183.599
8	2	Austin Cindric	Ford	49.071	0.263	183.408
9	22	Joey Logano	Ford	49.074	0.266	183.397
10	5	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	49.082	0.274	183.367
11	67	Corey Heim	Toyota	49.101	0.293	183.296
12	19	Chase Briscoe	Toyota	49.104	0.296	183.284
13	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	49.117	0.309	183.236
14	54	Ty Gibbs	Toyota	49.123	0.315	183.214
15	43	Erik Jones	Toyota	49.140	0.332	183.150
16	41	Cole Custer	Chevrolet	49.144	0.336	183.135
17	45	Tyler Reddick	Toyota	49.145	0.337	183.132
18	71	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	49.149	0.341	183.117
19	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	49.154	0.346	183.098
20	48	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	49.176	0.368	183.016
21	6	Brad Keselowski	Ford	49.204	0.396	182.912
22	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	49.232	0.424	182.808
23	7	Daniel Suarez	Chevrolet	49.240	0.432	182.778
24	21	Josh Berry	Ford	49.282	0.474	182.622
25	51	Cody Ware	Chevrolet	49.302	0.494	182.548
26	23	Darrell Wallace Jr	Toyota	49.330	0.522	182.445
27	42	John Hunter Nemechek	Toyota	49.335	0.527	182.426
28	77	Carson Hocevar	Chevrolet	49.336	0.528	182.423
29	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	49.343	0.535	182.397
30	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	49.360	0.552	182.334
31	10	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	49.361	0.553	182.330
32	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Chevrolet	49.375	0.567	182.278
33	34	Todd Gilliland	Ford	49.388	0.580	182.231
34	38	Zane Smith	Ford	49.402	0.594	182.179
35	16	AJ Allmendinger	Chevrolet	49.485	0.677	181.873
36	20	Christopher Bell	Toyota	49.485	0.677	181.873
37	4	Noah Gragson	Ford	49.500	0.692	181.818
38	62	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	49.520	0.712	181.745
39	78	Daniel Dye	Chevrolet	49.555	0.747	181.616
40	44	Joey Gase	Chevrolet	49.933	1.125	180.242
DNQ	66	Gray Gaulding	Ford	50.058	1.250	179.791