Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson swept the front row for Hendrick Motorsports, with the former winning his fourth Daytona 500 pole.
Death, taxes, and Hendrick Motorsports sweeping the front row of the Daytona 500 are the only guarantees in life. Alex Bowman landed HMS its 16th Daytona 500 pole after he clocked in the fastest lap in pole qualifying. As the final car to hit the track, his lap of 49.536 seconds and speed of 181.686 mph bumped teammate Kyle Larson off the top spot.
It’s his fourth career pole and third in the Daytona 500 since 2018. In addition, it’s his sixth-consecutive front-row start in the 500.
Hendrick Motorsports won pole position for the Daytona 500 for the eighth time in the last nine seasons. Furthermore, Bowman’s pole run gives Chevrolet its 11th-consecutive pole for the 500, and 31st overall. Barring an engine failure, going to a backup car, or failing inspection multiple times before Sunday, Bowman and Larson locked in their starting spots for the 65th running of the Daytona 500.
🤝 #BuschLightPole | @Alex_Bowman pic.twitter.com/eoKiH0lsPz
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 16, 2023
The Rest of the Field
Everyone else must race for their spot, via the Duels, Thursday. Drivers who timed-in in odd-numbered spots will race in Duel No. 1, while even-numbered qualifiers race in Duel No. 2.
During the final round of qualifying, Kyle Busch dipped below the double-yellow line on the backstretch to gain a draft advantage off of Austin Cindric, who was on his cool-down lap. Which violated NASCAR’s rule during qualifying. As a result, NASCAR deleted his lap time. Since he made the final round of qualifying, however, he’ll drop to 10th in qualifying and will start fifth in Duel No. 2.
Jimmie Johnson and Travis Pastrana clocked in the fastest laps of the open cars. Thus, they locked themselves into Sunday’s Daytona 500. The four remaining open cars – Conor Daly, Timmy Hill, Zane Smith, and Chandler Smith – will race in one of the two Duel races, Thursday, for the final two spots in Sunday’s race.
Luck dealt Chandler Smith a bad hand on Wednesday. As he left pit road for his qualifying lap, his engine sputtered. When he went out again a few minutes later and it gave out a second time.
