NASCAR
Pole Winners Win all Four Clash Heat Races, Elliott and Buescher on Front Row for Sunday
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – NASCAR’s most popular driver had a night to remember at The Madhouse.
Following quick time in Cook Out Clash practice and starting first in his heat race, Chase Elliott led the entire 25 lap dash to secure the pole position for Sunday’s Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium (8 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Elliott called track position at the tight quarter-mile track a big piece in finding any success.
“It’s going to be tough to win from the third or fourth row,” said Elliott. The 2020 Cup champion shares the front row with Heat 2 winner Chris Buescher, who led every lap of his qualifying heat holding off Joe Gibbs Racing newcomer Chase Briscoe. The 9 and 17 will lead the field to green in the 200-lap exhibition race.
“I think the first couple of rows certainly have a massive advantage on the rest of the field. Obviously, anything can happen. You all have been watching long enough to know that anything can happen, and I’m well aware of that. But I think just in a normal circumstance of people not totally crashing each other or whatever—yeah, I certainly would want to be on the first couple of rows and, fortunately, we are. We’ll try to take advantage of that.”
Heat 3 and 4 winners Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick will both respectively start third and fourth on Sunday’s grid. Further proving Elliott’s point in track position value at Bowman Gray Stadium, all four heat races saw a wire-to-wire win by their polesitter.
The top five finishers from each heat earned an automatic berth in Sunday’s Clash. This leaves 19 drivers left to fight for two spots in a last chance qualifier before Sunday’s main event. The 23rd and final spot in the field will go to the driver who finished best in the 2024 championship not already locked in.
That provisional was earned by Ryan Blaney, who finished 10th after starting third in a wild first heat that saw three cautions in 25 laps. Kyle Larson, who started sixth and finished eighth in heat 2, will have to race his way into the main event from the LCQ.
Joining Elliott in the main event from Heat 1 were Brad Keselowski, Noah Gragson, Kyle Busch and Ross Chastain. Heat 2 qualifiers included Buescher, Briscoe, Shane van Gisbergen, Bubba Wallace and Daniel Suarez.
Advancing from Heat 3 in addition to Hamlin were reigning NASCAR Cup champion Joey Logano, William Byron, Carson Hocevar and Alex Bowman. Joining Reddick from Heat 4 were Christopher Bell, Ryan Preece, Austin Cindric and Todd Gilliland.
FOX is your home for Cook Out Clash coverage on Sunday, with the LCQ race going green at 6 p.m. ET and the Clash main event starting at 8. Saturday night at Bowman Gray Stadium determined 21 of the elite 23 entrants to compete for this trophy.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credits to Sean Gardner/Getty Images
