Bobby Travis · NASCAR/IndyCar Correspondent
Chase Briscoe has taken pole for the season finale at Homestead, while Tyler Reddick qualified third after his crash in practice.
Chase Briscoe took pole for the 2026 NASCAR Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday afternoon. His lap of 32.396 seconds was a fraction quicker than that of teammate Denny Hamlin, who secured second on the grid just 0.017 seconds back. That gives Joe Gibbs Racing a front-row lockout for the title decider, a day before the race for the 2026 Cup Series championship gets underway at 3 p.m. local time on Sunday.
Joe Gibbs Racing on top, but the field stays tightly bunched
Briscoe backed up the strong form he showed on Friday, when he had already topped the weekend's only practice session with a 32.680-second lap. Lowering that mark to 32.396 seconds in qualifying shows how well the No. 19 car has worked throughout the championship weekend. Hamlin stayed right on his tail, with just 0.017 seconds separating the two Joe Gibbs Racing drivers at the end.
Behind them, it was tight for the rest of the field. Tyler Reddick was third with a 32.437-second lap, 0.041 seconds off pole and only 0.024 seconds behind Hamlin. Kyle Larson completed the second row alongside Reddick in fourth with 32.463 seconds, 0.067 seconds back. Austin Cindric and Christopher Bell rounded out the first three rows in fifth and sixth, followed by Chase Elliott, William Byron, Ryan Blaney and Daniel Suárez in seventh to tenth.
Reddick third on the grid after dramatic practice crash
That Tyler Reddick starts on the second row at all is no given after Friday. In the final seconds of practice, Reddick was heading onto pit road to make a mock pit stop. Ahead of him, a car slowed sharply to turn into the garage area, according to Racing News it was Todd Gilliland. Zane Smith and Reddick behind him arrived at high speed and could not react in time. Reddick slammed into the back of Smith, spun and heavily damaged the nose of his car.
The incident did not go unnoticed within the team either. Co-owner Michael Jordan threw his arms in the air, as TV pictures showed. Reddick himself was strikingly self-critical afterwards, telling TNT Sports that the practice incident sums up his season. That his crew repaired the car in time for qualifying without having to go to a backup car, and that he then set the third-fastest time of the field, should still be a small consolation for the 23XI Racing team after a nerve-racking day of practice.
Larson starts the title race from row two, Keselowski at the back
For the championship, fourth on the grid should be a solid starting point for Kyle Larson. The Hendrick Motorsports driver goes into the finale with a 67-point lead over Christopher Bell and 70 over Hamlin, and will start Sunday's race from the second row alongside Reddick. According to Yahoo Sports, eight stage points would already be enough for him to clinch the title. His teammate Chase Elliott qualified seventh, 0.140 seconds slower than Larson.
Qualifying went very differently for Brad Keselowski. The RFK Racing driver spun on his qualifying lap and hit the wall, and his time of 35.589 seconds leaves him last on the grid in the 40-car field. It is Keselowski's final race in the No. 6 RFK Ford, which he has driven since 2022, and he is also a co-owner of the team. RFK Racing announced at the end of September that he will leave the seat after the season. For the Championship Race itself, the starting order means one thing above all: with Larson and Hamlin, two of the three remaining title contenders start in the first two rows, while the third, Christopher Bell, lines up sixth. How the battles for position in traffic on the 1.5-mile oval play out on Sunday afternoon is likely to help decide the outcome of the title fight.
