Alex Bowman wins the pole for the 63rd Daytona 500
It's becoming a familiar theme at the Daytona 500. Alex Bowman on the front row. Bowman bested his teammate William Byron for his second career Daytona pole and the fourth straight year Bowman will start on the front row.Bowman posted a lap at 191.261 mph
"It's pretty incredible right?" said Bowman. "For me it's really hard to sit here and be like 'yah, I did it, I did this and that, that's why were starting on the pole four consecutive years.' It's much more about Hendrick Motorsports."
Byron's top speed was190.219 mph. It's will be his second front row starting spot at Daytona. He won the pole in 2019 and starting next to his teammate in the sports biggest race is nothing new.
"We're started up there together before," said Byron. " I feel like for us we can rely on that experience, especially being teammates with Alex for last three years. It's really bee comfortable to work with him."
It's the ninth straight year a Chevy will start on the pole.
Only the top to spots were set with Wednesday night's qualifying, the rest of the field will be set during Thursday's Duel Races. There was some other business settle on Wednesday however. Eight cars are competing for the final four spots in the race, two of them did so on speed during qualifying, David Ragan andRyan Preece.
"I was feeling confident in the car we were bringing," said Preece. " And obviously practice show that I felt really confident about our single car speed, so that made qualifying that much easier."
Added Ragan, "That's a huge relief. There were some really good teams to come down to Daytona. I was a different feeling to come to Daytona and not be locked in."
Derricke Cope and Noah Gragson failed to make qualifying runs on Wednesday. Cope could not get his car fired on pit road, but he is locked into the field by virtue of his team's charter. Gragson failed inspection. He will lose a crew member for the weekend. Gragson will have to race his way into the 500 during one of Thursday's Duels.
The running of the 63rd Daytona 500 is February 14th on FOX.