CONCORD, N.C. -- Ty Gibbs won the pole for the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in qualifying on Saturday evening, posting a lap of 29.355 (183.955mph) to earn his first career NASCAR Cup Series pole. Gibbs' first pole comes in his 65th career Cup start dating back to midway through the 2022 season, and comes off of him earning a career-best second place finish in the last points-paying Cup race at Darlington.
One of the feature attractions of Cup qualifying was Kyle Larson, who made his way to Charlotte for practice and qualifying on Saturday before he seeks on Sunday to become the fifth driver in history to race in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. After making the Fast Six and qualifying fifth at Indianapolis a week ago, Larson was also able to make the final round of Coke 600 qualifying, but only wound up 10th quickest.
Trouble for @Chris_Buescher! pic.twitter.com/SmYJJsTlZ5
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) May 25, 2024
Chris Buescher enters the Coke 600 on the strength of challenging for multiple wins in May, but his bid to earn his first win of the year became considerably more difficult in practice. Buescher spun and crashed in turn 2 after blowing a left rear tire, forcing him to a backup car and preventing him from making a qualifying run. William Byron also spun off turn 4 during practice, but did not hit anything and later went on to qualify on the outside of the front row.
Buescher will start at the rear of the field in 39th on Sunday along with two other drivers who are there for very different reasons compared with the driver of the No. 17. Prior to the start of practice, NASCAR announced that Tyler Reddick's No. 45 team had made unapproved adjustments to the underwing of their car after going through inspection, leading to the ejection of the team's car chief, loss of pit selection, and multiple penalties at the start of the race. Reddick will have to drop to the rear of the field from the eighth starting spot, and then serve a pass-through pit road penalty after taking the green flag.
The NY Racing No. 44, driven by J.J. Yeley, was also disallowed from making a qualifying lap after failing tech inspection three times.
Coca-Cola 600 starting lineup
- #54 - Ty Gibbs
- #24 - William Byron
- #20 - Christopher Bell
- #19 - Martin Truex Jr.
- #9 - Chase Elliott
- #48 - Alex Bowman
- #1 - Ross Chastain
- #45 - Tyler Reddick
- #34 - Michael McDowell
- #5 - Kyle Larson
- #11 - Denny Hamlin
- #23 - Bubba Wallace
- #4 - Josh Berry (R)
- #99 - Daniel Suarez
- #8 - Kyle Busch
- #12 - Ryan Blaney
- #2 - Austin Cindric
- #14 - Chase Briscoe
- #10 - Noah Gragson
- #77 - Carson Hocevar (R)
- #7 - Corey LaJoie
- #51 - Justin Haley
- #47 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- #31 - Daniel Hemric
- #71 - Zane Smith (R)
- #42 - John Hunter Nemechek
- #3 - Austin Dillon
- #22 - Joey Logano
- #84 - Jimmie Johnson
- #6 - Brad Keselowski
- #41 - Ryan Preece
- #21 - Harrison Burton
- #15 - Kaz Grala (R)
- #43 - Erik Jones
- #38 - Todd Gilliland
- #16 - Shane van Gisbergen
- #66 - B.J. McLeod
- #50 - Ty Dillon
- #17 - Chris Buescher
- #44 - J.J. Yeley