Chase Elliott Edges Briscoe for Pole at Road America

A two-day show for the Cup Series began today in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. There are 37 cars entered in tomorrow’s race at Road America, which is arguably the best road course in the country. The scenic 4.048-mile circuit provides plenty of passing opportunities, and is a real test for these drivers.

Chase Elliott will start where he finished this race last year – at the front. He earned his second pole of the season today, and the 11th of his Cup career. The Hendrick Motorsports driver's speed of 108.407 mph was quick enough to steal the top spot on his final lap during qualifying. He won this race last year but has a much, much better starting position this time around.

"It was a little more fun than I thought it would be, for sure," said a surprised Elliott. "Hopefully, the results are the same tomorrow as they were last year—that’s what’s important. We’ll go to work and see if we can get it driving like it needs to tomorrow. I think it’s going to be really hard to pass, based on what I saw there in practice. Just want to keep track position as long as we can—that’s always a tough think at road courses—and manage that balance of what to do at what time."

It will be an All-Chase front row as Chase Briscoe will start alongside in his No. 14 Ford Mustang. Briscoe had a firm grip on the pole position until the defending race winner bested him at the very end. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver was fastest in the practice session, and should have a great shot at getting to victory lane tomorrow.

"I did a terrible job," Briscoe claimed. "I was more sideways than straight. I feel like I gave up six-tenths easily in different corners. My team definitely deserves the pole, but the driver doesn’t deserve the pole. I have to clean that up. We should be really good for tomorrow, though. We have a really fast Ford, and I have to put it together. I was overdriving so bad. I’ve just got to slow down. I have to learn from that. I have a really good car, and that will be big for tomorrow. We’ll see if we can put it all together and get the driver to stop messing up."

Kyle Larson will line up directly behind his teammate tomorrow in the 3rd starting position. He will be joined on Row 2 by fellow Chevrolet driver Tyler Reddick, who is still searching for his first Cup win. Austin Cindric and Michael McDowell will start from Row 3 while Chris Buescher and Alex Bowman share Row 4.

The first practice of the day nearly had a major moment when Larson lost control of his No. 5 Chevrolet at one of the fastest sections of the track. He spun and ended up back on the pavement, as drivers dodged him going through the high-speed zone.

Joey Hand and Cole Custer rounded out the top ten in qualifying today. Hand is making his third start of the season for Rick Ware Racing, and his 9th place qualifying result is the best of his career. The road course specialist has been waiting for this weekend for quite some time.

“I’ve been fortunate to race around the world in different cars and different tracks, and this is number one for me,” Hand said. “People ask me all the time, what’s your favorite track? Road America. Easy. It’s the best lap in racing.”

Just missing out on advancing to the final round of qualifying were Brad Keselowski (11th), Ross Chastain (12th), with Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr, and Christopher Bell all claiming the next four starting spots.

Busch’s team had to change the engine in his No. 18 Toyota so he will actually be starting at the rear of the field. While Cindric had a strong run for Team Penske, his teammates didn't fare as well as Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney start 18th and 19th tomorrow.

Several contenders will start towards the back of the field tomorrow, including AJ Allmendinger (21st), Kurt Busch (22nd), Erik Jones (27th), Kevin Harvick (28th), William Byron (29th), but Elliott did win this race last year from the 34th starting position.

There are 13 drivers in the field that have a road course victory on their resume. Elliott is at the front of that list, as 7 of his 15 Cup wins have come on these types of tracks. A win tomorrow would tie him with Tony Stewart for second-most in series history. Jeff Gordon (nine) currently sits at the top of the all-time list.

Road America offers many unique challenges to the drivers, but also to the teams. Elliott's crew chief Alan Gustafson offered some insight on that subject. "Braking zones are the first things that come to mind," he said. "The car needs to be able to change direction well and have stability at the same time. There’s also the course intricacies that you have to prepare for. There’s a few tight 90-degree corners, the carousel, the kink—a high-speed left. That’s what makes it so difficult. There are so many styles of corners that make it harder."

Making his 10th Cup start on a road course tomorrow, Briscoe is aiming for his first top-five finish in that category. Starting from the front row, he has confidence that they can get the job done tomorrow. "It’s a very challenging track, but that’s why I like coming here," Briscoe said. "It does wear you out. It gets like a slick, worn-out dirt track, as weird as that sounds, but that’s why I like it."

"I just like the feat of trying to wrestle a four-mile road course. It’s huge. It takes over two minutes to run the race track, so I just enjoy the challenge of racing here and trying to get these cars to do what you want each lap, with every turn. It’s a lot of fun and, when it pays off, it’s incredibly rewarding."

Coverage for tomorrow’s Kwik Trip 250 at Road America begins at 3 PM ET on USA Network.