88 is No. 1 again: Alex Bowman wins pole position for the Daytona 500
Bowman on pole for Daytona 500, Hamlin second
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Alex Bowman put a familiar number atop the Daytona 500 leaderboard.
Bowman won the pole position for “The Great American Race” in his debut as the full-time driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet. Several big names in NASCAR history have raced with that number, including Dale Earnhardt Jr. the past 10 years.
Six of Earnhardt’s 17 career victories at Daytona International Speedway came while driving a No. 88 car, including one of his Daytona 500 victories, and he was a seven-time pole winner at the track, too.
With Earnhardt retiring at the end of last season, Bowman wasted little time making the Camaro his own. He turned a lap at 195.644 mph during qualifying Sunday to earn the top starting spot for the Daytona 500, which will drop the green flag on a new Cup Series season next Sunday.
“I think it’s still a little surreal,” said Bowman, who will compete in the race for the second time.
Bowman finished 23rd for BK Racing four years ago, failed to qualify for Tommy Baldwin Racing in 2015 and didn’t have a Cup Series ride for the season opener the past two years.
“It’s a dream come true just to drive for Hendrick Motorsports,” Bowman said. “I never would have thought it would happen after the path my career took.”
Denny Hamlin, who won the race two years ago, qualified second in the No. 11
Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing with a lap at 195.092. Only the top two cars locked in spots in this round of qualifying, with the remainder of the field set by a pair of qualifying races Thursday.
Bowman was a driver struggling to piece together a schedule when Earnhardt was injured in 2016. Earnhardt missed the second half of that season with a concussion, and Bowman was tabbed to fill in for 10 of those races.
The 24-year-old Tucson, Ariz., native impressed Rick Hendrick enough that when Earnhardt said he would retire at the end of 2017, Bowman got the job. He made his boss proud, too, with the pole-winning run.
Hendrick is now tied with Harry Ranier for the record of most consecutive Daytona 500 poles at four. Jeff Gordon won the pole in 2015, Chase Elliott won it the past two seasons and now Bowman has the honor. Bowman downplayed his role. “I just held the steering wheel,” he said. “It’s Daytona.”
Indeed, pole qualifying is a display of horsepower, and there’s no doubt that Hendrick Motorsports has it for this event. Hendrick put Chevrolet on the pole for the sixth consecutive year.
Seven-time season champion Jimmie Johnson was third-fastest, rookie William Byron was fifth and Elliott was 10th in Hendrick cars. The driver simply turns the laps on qualifying day, and the fastest cars climb to the top.
“We knew we were going for the pole — that’s what we’re here to do,” Bowman said. “I was a little nervous for that second round, but we took off well on pit road and did everything I could do. This really came down to the crew; everybody works so hard.”
Earnhardt tweeted congratulations to his replacement, who also won a Cup Series pole while filling in for Earnhardt in 2016. Bowman raced just three times on the national level last season — two Xfinity Series races and one in the Camping World Truck Series — and filled his time using a simulator as he waited for Earnhardt to retire.
Hamlin was thrilled to have earned such a strong starting spot.
“I realistically set my expectations and would have been happy with 18th,” Hamlin said. “This came out of the blue for me and is a great opportunity for me to win a second Daytona 500.”
The Toyotas were also fast, though, and all four Joe Gibbs Racing entries were in the top seven Sunday. Kyle Busch was fourth, Erik Jones sixth and Daniel Suarez seventh.
Martin Truex Jr., who won his first Cup Series championship last season, was 26th in the Furniture Row Racing Toyota and searching for the same speed the JGR cars displayed.
“Speed-wise, we’ve been off a bit here,” Truex said. “I don’t know, new rules package and all, we’re just trying to figure that out. There’s not a whole lot you can do when you get down here. You’ve kind of got what you’ve got. We’re going to hope that our car handles really good and we can outdrive them in race trim.”
Kurt Busch, last year’s Daytona 500 winner, was 17th-fastest. Kevin Harvick, one of his Stewart-Haas Racing teammates, had the fastest Ford at eighth and was followed by Roush Fenway Racing driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who won two restrictor plate races last season. Ford drivers won all four of last season’s restrictor plate races, events in which the strength of an engine is one of the most important tools.
“I didn’t think we would run that fast,” Harvick admitted. “The speed is better than we expected.”
Danica Patrick, a former Stewart-Haas driver, was 28th in her final NASCAR single-car qualifying session. She’s racing in only the Daytona 500 and then the Indianapolis 500 in May before she retires from competition.