{"id":40060,"date":"2026-02-12T13:30:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T09:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/?p=40060"},"modified":"2026-02-12T12:17:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T08:17:41","slug":"kyle-busch-daytona-500-pole-rcr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/kyle-busch-daytona-500-pole-rcr\/","title":{"rendered":"Busch Adds Daytona 500 Pole to RCR Record Ahead of Race"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"background: #f7fafc; padding: 15px;\">\n<p><strong>Quick Read<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Kyle Busch secured his first career pole position for the 2026 Daytona 500.<\/li>\n<li>Busch, driving the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing (RCR) Chevrolet, completed a lap in 49.006 seconds (183.651 mph).<\/li>\n<li>He outpaced Chase Briscoe by 0.016 seconds in the final qualifying round.<\/li>\n<li>This is RCR&#8217;s seventh Daytona 500 pole, and their first since 2014.<\/li>\n<li>The rest of the starting grid will be determined by Thursday&#8217;s Duel qualifying races.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>DAYTONA BEACH (Azat TV) \u2013 Veteran NASCAR driver Kyle Busch has secured his first career pole position for the 2026 Daytona 500, piloting the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing (RCR) Chevrolet. This significant achievement marks a new milestone in Busch&#8217;s illustrious career, which includes 98 career victories and seven owner\u2019s championships in the NASCAR Truck Series with Kyle Busch Motorsports, alongside a prior Cup Series win with RCR.<\/p>\n<p>Busch, competing in his 21st Daytona 500, demonstrated commanding speed during Wednesday&#8217;s qualifying sessions at the 2.5-mile superspeedway. He posted a blistering lap time of 49.006 seconds (183.651 mph), narrowly edging out Chase Briscoe in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota by a mere 0.016 seconds in the final round. Busch had also led both preliminary rounds of qualifying, underscoring his dominance.<\/p>\n<p>For Richard Childress Racing, this marks their seventh Daytona 500 pole, and their first since Austin Dillon achieved the feat to kick off the 2014 season. This performance highlights the strong partnership between Busch and RCR, a team he joined in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking after his qualifying run, Busch expressed his excitement, stating, &#8220;Certainly, here on Wednesday night, being able to qualify on my first pole for the Daytona 500, that&#8217;s pretty special.&#8221; He also acknowledged the collective effort, adding, &#8220;Feels really good for RCR as a group. Everybody from ECR (Engines), thanks to Bob (Fisher, Senior Vice President of ECR Engines), and his whole team there.&#8221; Busch is working with a new crew chief, Jim Pohlman, this year, making the early success even more notable.<\/p>\n<p>The qualifying results determine the front row for Sunday&#8217;s 68th running of &#8220;The Great American Race.&#8221; The remainder of the starting grid will be set following two Duel qualifying races on Thursday. Busch will lead the field in Duel #1, with Ryan Preece starting alongside him, while Briscoe will lead Duel #2 with Denny Hamlin.<\/p>\n<p>Among other notable qualifiers, reigning NASCAR Truck Series champion Corey Heim impressed by locking himself into the field in his first-ever Daytona 500 attempt, driving a fourth entry for 23XI Racing. Justin Allgaier also secured a spot for JR Motorsports, beating Corey LaJoie by just 0.004 seconds for one of the coveted open entries. Meanwhile, Noah Gragson had his initial qualifying time disallowed due to a new rule prohibiting drivers from placing their hands against the window opening to deflect air, an error he openly admitted.<\/p>\n<p><em>This first pole position for the Daytona 500 adds a unique dimension to Kyle Busch&#8217;s already storied career, marking a significant personal milestone in a race he has yet to win, and further solidifying his impactful tenure with Richard Childress Racing as they prepare for Sunday&#8217;s main event.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Veteran driver Kyle Busch has secured his first career pole position for the prestigious Daytona 500, driving for Richard Childress Racing (RCR). This milestone adds a significant achievement to Busch&#8217;s decorated career, marking a new high point in his tenure with RCR.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":-1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow5Nm1DA:productID":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[7583,47068,8531,7584,22827,47069],"class_list":["post-40060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sport","tag-daytona-500","tag-kyle-busch","tag-motorsport","tag-nascar","tag-qualifying","tag-richard-childress-racing"],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/kyle-busch-rcr-chevrolet.jpg","_embedded":{"wp:featuredmedia":[{"id":-1,"source_url":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/kyle-busch-rcr-chevrolet.jpg","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}