Bowman, Larson will start up front for Daytona 500
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Alex Bowman won the pole position for the Daytona 500 for the third time in his NASCAR career, and the 29-year-old Hendrick Motorsports driver will be joined by teammate Kyle Larson as Chevrolets fill the front row of the starting lineup for Sunday’s Cup Series season opener.
The Hendrick dominance is no surprise.
Bowman, who missed five races late last season because of a concussion, is on the Daytona 500 front row for the sixth straight time, and the organization produced a pole winner for the eighth time in a nine-year stretch.
In addition, Jimmie Johnson made a triumphant return to NASCAR on Wednesday night by assuring himself of spot the Daytona 500 during pole qualifying, a tremendous start for the the seven-time Cup Series champion as he heads into his first race on the circuit since 2020.
The 47-year-old Johnson returned from a two-year dalliance in IndyCar for an ownership stake in Legacy Motor Club, and he quickly added to his own legacy, joining the 40-driver field in his No. 84 Chevrolet. Yes, that’s a reverse of the No. 48 he ran when he won two Daytona 500s while driving for Hendrick.
Bowman is now behind the wheel of the No. 48.
“I think I really have a shot to win,” Johnson said before he hit the track for qualifying. “If I survive and get through the first two stages, there’s really a shot that I have to win this race.”
Johnson will be joined Sunday by another 40-something part-timer in former X Games thrill-seeker Travis Pastrana. Pastrana said racing in the Daytona 500 was one of his last motorsports goals, and this was his last, best shot to get there. He landed a ride for Daytona in the No. 67 Toyota as a third entry for 23XI Racing, the NASCAR team owned by basketball legend Michael Jordan and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner.
With 36 drivers already locked into the 40-car field based on NASCAR’s charter system, Johnson and Pastrana were among six others competing for the final four starting spots at Daytona International Speedway.
Johnson and Pastrana embraced on pit row after they locked themselves in the race. They can rest easy for a night.
So can Bowman, who has yet to parlay the top spot into a Daytona 500 win, and Larson, the 2021 Cup Series champion. Bowman, who received a three-year contract extension Wednesday that keeps him with Hendrick through the 2026 season, turned a top speed of 181.686 mph. Larson hit 181.057.
The final two open spots and the starting order will be settled in Thursday night’s duel qualifying races. Conor Daly, Austin Hill, Chandler Smith and Zane Smith will vie for the two open spots.
Because NASCAR did not have practice at the superspeedway before Wednesday, teams did not have any time to hit the track and work out kinks in their cars.
Still, it felt like old times for Johnson, who turned 47 in September.
He had seemingly walked away from NASCAR after the 2020 season, but he never scored a podium finish over 29 starts in two IndyCar seasons. So it was back to NASCAR, only this time with a say in how to run the operation. He bought into the ownership group of what was Petty GMS Racing and quickly rebranded it to Legacy M.C.
Pastrana was a bigger long shot to make Daytona.
He has won championships in supercross, motocross, freestyle motocross, rally racing and, most recently, offshore powerboat racing. He made a brief run at NASCAR a decade ago and raced a full schedule in 2013 for Roush Fenway Racing on the second-tier Xfinity Series. He later said the adjustment to stock cars led to far more struggles than he expected.
Pastrana drove the No. 67 Toyota like a seasoned veteran and will join 23XI drivers Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace in the field.