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Kyle Busch wins pole for the Daytona 500, Chase Briscoe joins him on front row
NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Busch. Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images

Kyle Busch wins pole for the Daytona 500, Chase Briscoe joins him on front row

By Samuel Stubbs  |  Last updated Feb 11, 2026 10:19 PM ET

Kyle Busch will lead the NASCAR Cup Series field to the green flag in Sunday's Daytona 500. 

Busch won the pole for the 68th running of the "Great American Race" with a lap time of 49.006 seconds in the second round of Wednesday's qualifying session at Daytona International Speedway. Busch was also fastest in the first round of qualifying. 

The pole is the 35th of Busch's career, his second at Daytona and his first since Dover in 2024. He enters Sunday's Daytona 500 on a 93-race winless streak and looking for his first Daytona 500 win in his 21st start.

"Being able to qualify on my first pole for the Daytona 500, that's pretty special," Busch told Fox Sports. "Feels really good for RCR as a group."

Chase Briscoe also on the front row

Briscoe won the pole for the 2025 Daytona 500 but came up one spot shy of a repeat on Wednesday. 

The rest of the starting lineup for Sunday's Daytona 500 will be determined in Thursday's duel qualifying races. Those 150-mile races will also lock in the final two drivers of six open cars into the race itself, as Corey Heim and Justin Allgaier sewed up their starting spots in Sunday's race in qualifying.

Samuel Stubbs
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Hailing from the same neck of the woods as NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin, Samuel has been covering NASCAR for Yardbarker since February 2024. He has been a member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) since October of 2024. When he’s not writing about racing, Samuel covers Arkansas Razorback basketball for Yardbarker

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