HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman provided a dramatic final few minutes of Busch Light Pole Qualifying on Saturday afternoon – claiming the pole position for Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
With only four cars remaining in the session, Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet set fast lap of 168.845 mph around the 1.5-mile track, knocking Front Frow Motorsports’ Noah Gragson from the lead position that he had held for the majority of the qualifying session.
Last week’s Las Vegas race winner, Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry took the track immediately after and nearly equaled Bowman’s lap – instead his No. 21 Ford coming a mere .073-second off the pole-winning pace but earning a front row position alongside the Hendrick driver.
This is Bowman’s sixth career pole position and first at Homestead, a place the 32-year-old Arizona-native doesn’t necessarily consider one of his historically better tracks. He has only a pair of top-10 finishes, but his best outcome – seventh place – came in the series most recent Homestead visit last October.
“There were some cars not so great on the short run and really fast on the long run and we were kind of the opposite of that practice, we were really faster in the short run and not great on the long run stuff so I knew qualifying was going to be really important because of that and that we had some work to do for tomorrow,” Bowman said, “But for me, I had a pretty clear cut plan for qualifying and I thought I was able to execute that pretty well and my race car gave me what I needed to do that.”
Gragson will start third, followed by Daytona 500 polesitter, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe in the No. 19 Toyota and current NASCAR Cup Series championship leader William Byron in the No. 24 Hendrick Chevrolet.
“We’re still really fast, but I’ve never gotten a pole in the Cup Series, but our Beef A Roo Mustang is pretty quick on the short run,” said Gragson, driver of the No. 4 FRM Ford. “We just need to get a little better for the long run and we’re up in the hunt, so that’s good.”
Intermittent clouds cooled the 74-degree afternoon and as Bowman alluded to, several of the fastest cars in practice did not necessarily fare as well in actual qualifying.
23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace set top pace in Group B practice, for example, but was only ninth quickest in qualifying. Fellow Toyota driver, Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones was second – just behind Wallace – in that practice session but ended up only 28th quickest on the starting grid.
Conversely, Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger, who was 25th fastest in that Group 2 practice session will start the race from 10th position. Berry, still basking in his first career win last week at Las Vegas, was 31st in practice but will start from the front row.
Defending race winner Tyler Reddick was 20th in qualifying. Kyle Larson, who is attempting to win in all three national series races this weekend will roll off 14th in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
And the season’s winningest driver, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell was 16th in qualifying. A three-time winner already, he is trying to become only the third driver in NASCAR history – joining Hall of Famers Bill Elliott (1992) and Dale Earnhardt (1987) as the only competitors in the modern era to win four of the opening six races.
Source: Holly Cain | NASCAR Wire Service
