Chase Elliott wins third Daytona pole
Chase Elliott is starting first at Daytona again.
Elliott is making his third No. 1 start in four Daytona races on Saturday night as he was the fastest qualifier in both rounds of qualifying on Friday for the Coke Zero Sugar 400.
He’ll start alongside teammate Alex Bowman, the driver of the No. 88 car and the pole winner for February’s Daytona 500. Friday’s pole is the fourth of Elliott’s career and the No. 88 car has started second or third in all four of the times Elliott has qualified first. Dale Earnhardt Jr. started third in the previous three races where Elliott started first.
Jimmie Johnson qualified fourth, giving Hendrick Motorsports three of the top four qualifiers. The team hasn’t won a race in 2018 and hasn’t won a race since Kasey Kahne won in late July at Indianapolis almost a year ago. Saturday night could be its best shot at a win given Chevrolet teams’ struggles with the new Camaro car.
Brad Keselowski, the 2016 winner of the race, starts third. Defending race winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. starts sixth right behind Kevin Harvick in fifth. Here’s what the entire starting lineup looks like:
1. Chase Elliott
2. Alex Bowman
3. Brad Keselowski
4. Jimmie Johnson
5. Kevin Harvick
6. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
7. Ryan Newman
8. Michael McDowell
9. Clint Bowyer
10. Austin Dillon
11. Joey Logano
12. Ryan Blaney
13. Martin Truex Jr.
14. Kyle Larson
15. Kyle Busch
16. Brendan Gaughan
17. Denny Hamlin
18. William Byron
19. Ty Dillon
20. Trevor Bayne
21. David Ragan
22. Bubba Wallace
23. Kurt Busch
24. AJ Allmendinger
25. Chris Buescher
26. Aric Almirola
27. Jamie McMurray
28. Kasey Kahne
29. Erik Jones
30. Paul Menard
31. Matt DiBenedetto
32. Daniel Suarez
33. Ross Chastain
34. Jeffrey Earnhardt
35. DJ Kennington
36. Joey Gase
37. Landon Cassill
38. Corey LaJoie
39. Ray Black Jr.
40. JJ Yeley
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
