The grid is set for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen International. Defending winner Shane van Gisbergen earned pole position — his first at the Glen but fifth at the Cup level. The impressive qualifying effort also comes on the Kiwi's 37th birthday!
Spire Motorsports' Michael McDowell will start from the outside of the front row, a full 0.259s off of SVG's fast lap of 1:11.165s.
Austin Cindric qualified third for Team Penske, while SVG's teammates Ross Chastain and Connor Zilisch were fourth and fifth, respectively.
"The guys did a good job tuning it for what I needed for the one lap," said Van Gisbergen. "It was really good, but all Trackhouse cars in the top five as well. We got some good cars here this weekend."
Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, and Ty Gibbs filled out the remainder of the top ten.
Watch: Van Gisbergen captures Cup pole at Watkins Glen
The 35-minute qualifying session got off to a slow start as cars hesitated to go out on track. Halfway through the session, only 15 cars had put down a time with Hocevar leading the way over Allmendinger.
With less than ten minutes to go, Van Gisbergen made his run with Zilisch following him around the track. The difference was all under braking into the bus stop, as the three-time Supercars champion gained a ton of time through that one section.
In the end, the gap between 1st and 2nd on the speed charts was more than the gap between 2nd and 14th, showcasing just how far ahead SVG was on his flying lap.
While there were four Chevrolets inside the top five, the top Hendrick Motorsports driver was William Byron down in 13th. Kyle Larson was back in 23rd, Texas winner Chase Elliott 27th, and Alex Bowman 28th.
23XI was another surprise, as Tyler Reddick had won the most recent road course race at COTA from pole, but he was only fast enough for 15th.
Katherine Legge, who had her car chief ejected after two inspection failures, qualified last, 5.3 seconds off the pole time.
Watch: SVG expects strategy-heavy Cup race at Watkins Glen
NASCAR Cup Watkins Glen Starting Lineup
1
97
Shane van Gisbergen
Chevrolet
2
1'11.165
123.937
2
71
Michael McDowell
Chevrolet
2
1'11.424
0.259
123.488
3
2
Austin Cindric
Ford
2
1'11.445
0.280
123.452
4
1
Ross Chastain
Chevrolet
2
1'11.449
0.284
123.445
5
88
Connor Zilisch
Chevrolet
3
1'11.483
0.318
123.386
6
22
Joey Logano
Ford
2
1'11.522
0.357
123.319
7
12
Ryan Blaney
Ford
2
1'11.523
0.358
123.317
8
20
Christopher Bell
Toyota
3
1'11.582
0.417
123.215
9
19
Chase Briscoe
Toyota
4
1'11.583
0.418
123.214
10
54
Ty Gibbs
Toyota
2
1'11.615
0.450
123.159
11
77
Carson Hocevar
Chevrolet
4
1'11.620
0.455
123.150
12
16
AJ Allmendinger
Chevrolet
3
1'11.654
0.489
123.092
13
24
William Byron
Chevrolet
3
1'11.664
0.499
123.074
14
17
Chris Buescher
Ford
5
1'11.668
0.503
123.067
15
45
Tyler Reddick
Toyota
3
1'11.699
0.534
123.014
16
7
Daniel Suarez
Chevrolet
2
1'11.723
0.558
122.973
17
42
John Hunter Nemechek
Toyota
3
1'11.739
0.574
122.946
18
23
Bubba Wallace
Toyota
3
1'11.755
0.590
122.918
19
41
Cole Custer
Chevrolet
3
1'11.847
0.682
122.761
20
11
Denny Hamlin
Toyota
4
1'11.854
0.689
122.749
21
8
Kyle Busch
Chevrolet
5
1'11.890
0.725
122.687
22
34
Todd Gilliland
Ford
2
1'11.941
0.776
122.600
23
5
Kyle Larson
Chevrolet
4
1'11.961
0.796
122.566
24
43
Erik Jones
Toyota
5
1'11.972
0.807
122.548
25
3
Austin Dillon
Chevrolet
5
1'11.999
0.834
122.502
26
6
Brad Keselowski
Ford
3
1'12.060
0.895
122.398
27
9
Chase Elliott
Chevrolet
2
1'12.067
0.902
122.386
28
48
Alex Bowman
Chevrolet
5
1'12.095
0.930
122.339
29
47
Ricky Stenhouse Jr
Chevrolet
3
1'12.122
0.957
122.293
30
60
Ryan Preece
Ford
6
1'12.124
0.959
122.289
31
10
Ty Dillon
Chevrolet
4
1'12.148
0.983
122.249
32
35
Riley Herbst
Toyota
3
1'12.260
1.095
122.059
33
38
Zane Smith
Ford
2
1'12.264
1.099
122.052
34
21
Josh Berry
Ford
4
1'12.614
1.449
121.464
35
4
Noah Gragson
Ford
5
1'12.637
1.472
121.426
36
51
Cody Ware
Chevrolet
4
1'13.199
2.034
120.493
37
66
Josh Bilicki
Ford
2
1'14.090
2.925
119.044
38
78
Katherine Legge
Chevrolet
14
1'16.497
5.332
115.299
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