Bubba Wallace won the pole for Sunday's Autotrader EchoPark Autmotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway in qualifying, posting a lap of 28.672 in the final round Saturday to earn his first pole of the 2023 season. Wallace's pole is the second of his Cup Series career and his first since Michigan in 2022.
Wallace will lead all drivers who advanced to the Round of 12 in the Cup Series playoffs, seven of whom earned top 10 starting spots. RFK Racing teammates Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski start second and third, followed by Ross Chastain in fifth, Kyle Busch in seventh, Christopher Bell in ninth and Denny Hamlin in 10th.
Playoff drivers outside the top 10 included Kyle Larson in 11th, Tyler Reddick in 15th, Martin Truex Jr. in 16th, William Byron in 18th and Ryan Blaney in 23rd.
After winning three consecutive poles in the Round of 16, Bell saw his consecutive poles streak come to an end when he didn't have a strong qualifying effort, running two tenths off of Wallace's fast lap. Hamlin, meanwhile, had to abort his pole run after getting out of the throttle on the exit of turn 2 and did not post an official time.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun out during his warm up lap in Qualifying. 👀#NASCAR | @TXMotorSpeedway pic.twitter.com/pIK0KrCjAz
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 23, 2023
Qualifying saw an exercise in NASCAR rulebook technicalities prompted by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who spun out as he was leaving pit road and driving through turn 2 on his get-up-to-speed lap. While the cause of Stenhouse's spin appeared to be driver error, NASCAR elected to allow the No. 47 team to put a new set of tires on their car, ruling that Stenhouse could make another attempt because his spin did not happen during his actual qualifying lap. Stenhouse wound up posting a lap of 29.110 and will start 24th.
Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 starting lineup
- #23 - Bubba Wallace
- #17 - Chris Buescher
- #6 - Brad Keselowski
- #54 - Ty Gibbs (R)
- #1 - Ross Chastain
- #16 - AJ Allmendinger
- #8 - Kyle Busch
- #99 - Daniel Suarez
- #20 - Christopher Bell
- #11 - Denny Hamlin
- #5 - Kyle Larson
- #43 - Erik Jones
- #3 - Austin Dillon
- #48 - Alex Bowman
- #45 - Tyler Reddick
- #19 - Martin Truex Jr.
- #34 - Michael McDowell
- #24 - William Byron
- #42 - Carson Hocevar
- #22 - Joey Logano
- #10 - Aric Almirola
- #4 - Kevin Harvick
- #12 - Ryan Blaney
- #47 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- #41 - Ryan Preece
- #77 - Ty Dillon
- #7 - Corey LaJoie
- #31 - Justin Haley
- #9 - Chase Elliott
- #21 - Harrison Burton
- #14 - Chase Briscoe
- #2 - Austin Cindric
- #38 - Zane Smith
- #78 - BJ McLeod
- #15 - JJ Yeley
- #51 - Todd Gilliland
Sunday's 400-mile race at Texas Motor Speedway is set to start at 3:30 p.m. ET.