Rookie Chase Elliott becomes youngest on Daytona 500 pole

For the Daytona 500 only, a special qualifying format locks in only the top two starting positions by time.

Elliott, who replaced the retired Jeff Gordon in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 entry this year, turned a lap of 196.314 miles per hour to earn the top spot got next Sunday’s 58th running of “The Great American Race”. Elliott is one of only two drivers who know where he will start next Sunday’s race so long as he takes care of his equipment and does not have to roll out a backup.

The rest of the top five was Dale Earnhardt Jr.at 45.993 seconds, Kyle Busch at 46.126 seconds and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.at 46.126 seconds. That set up the final driver of the day, as Earnhardt Jr. made his final run hoping for another Daytona 500 pole. Jeff (Gordon) knows all about that and I just wanted to give a big thanks to NAPA Auto Parts and all of our partners at HMS on this No. 24 vehicle.

Blaney, one of eight non-charter teams vying for four open Daytona 500 spots, locked himself into the 40-car field along with BK Racing’s Matt DiBenedetto.

“The big thing is just the team and Daytona 500 qualifying is about the team guys and the effort that they put into these cars”.

After 44 drivers had a scheduled turn, the 12 fastest advanced to the second round.

Yes, single-car qualifying at Daytona can be boring, but the double-round single-car runs in 2016 were a nice compromise between the traditional single-car two-lap qualifying sessions that decided the front row through 2014 and the mess that was 2015.

Elliott, 20, is also the youngest driver to ever win the 500 pole. He won’t have to worry about a spot next week. The DAYTONA 500 is about the team. The top open finisher in each qualifying race will make the Daytona 500.

TRUEX TROUBLES: Martin Truex Jr., one of four drivers to race for the championship in last season’s finale, did not make a qualifying attempt because of an issue with a roof flap of his No. 78 Toyota.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON: The Elliotts became the fourth father-son combination to earn the Daytona 500 pole, joining Richard Petty (1966) and Kyle Petty (1993), Bobby Allison (1981) and Davey Allison (1991), and Dale Earnhardt (1996) and Dale Earnhardt Jr.