Chase Briscoe is seemingly unstoppable in qualifying these days.
The first-year driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota made it three consecutive poles, topping all NASCAR Cup Series qualifiers on Saturday at Michigan International Speedway with a lap of 195.514 mph.
Joining Briscoe on the outside of Row 1 for Sunday’s race at Michigan will be Kyle Busch (195.371 mph) in the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. JGR’s Denny Hamlin qualified third in a Toyota, as Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson completed the top five.
Briscoe will look to make it back-to-back wins at Michigan for Toyota, after Fords prevailed in nine Cup Series races in a row at the track. Driving a Toyota for 23XI Racing, Tyler Reddick broke the Ford streak last year at Michigan — a track located less than 90 minutes from the headquarters of Ford and Chevrolet parent company General Motors.
Chase Briscoe Laments Race Day Struggles After Qualifying Successes
Winning the pole the past two weekends — at Charlotte and Nashville — ultimately hasn’t meant much for Chase Briscoe, as he’s struggled to replicate his qualifying speed on race days.
Briscoe, who hasn’t gone to Victory Lane since joining JGR this season, would like nothing more than to finally translate a pole-winning run into a win.
“That’s something that we haven’t been able to do so far. So yeah, I don’t know,” Briscoe, who also captured the pole for the season-opening Daytona 500, said after Saturday’s qualifying round. “It’s just been a lot of different things. Truthfully, like every week, it’s just been something different. Sometimes it’s me not doing my job on the race track, or you know, making a mistake on the restart, or we’ve had bad pit stops. It’s just been a multitude of things.”
Briscoe doesn’t believe there’s been one particular missing bullet for his No. 19 team the past two weekends.
“It’s hard to pinpoint what we really need,” he said. “The biggest thing is just to maintain our track position start to finish. We’ve been able to start up front, which is awesome, right? But to be able to stay up there, (it) just takes a full, complete day, and it’s something that we haven’t we’ve been able to do.”
"Hopefully third time's the charm."@chasebriscoe is here to capitalize on the No. 19's Saturday success. pic.twitter.com/UiwCOUgmEj
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 7, 2025
Chase Briscoe Is Not In Love With His Car At Michigan
Will Sunday at Michigan be the race that it all finally comes together for Chase Briscoe’s bunch? Based on the driver’s comments after qualifying, he seems less than convinced.
“Hopefully, tomorrow will be that day,” Briscoe said. “Truthfully, of all three weeks (I’ve won the pole), I would say this weekend has been the least favorite car I’ve had in race trim.”
Briscoe wasn’t thrilled with his car leading up to qualifying, either.
“I would say this is definitely the least confident I’ve been going into the last three weeks,” he said. “The last two weeks, at least we went out super-late in qualifying, which is typically an advantage.
“Truthfully, I knew the Toyotas were going to be really good. I knew the No. 19 car has been good, but I did not anticipate getting the pole.”
