MENCS: Chase Elliott wins pole for Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol

Chase Elliott won the pole for Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway with a track record of 131.713 mph.

For Elliott, this is the fifth pole of his NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series career and first of the 2019 season. All four of driver No. 9’s previous poles have came on superspeedways.

“I’ve been wanting a pole outside Daytona and Talladega for quite some time,” Elliott told FS1. “I feel like i haven’t done my part. It was nice to get my guys one today. I had a fast NAPA Chevy.”

“We have some work to do. I think it’s doable. Our car has pace. If we get it driving good, we can hopefully give ourselves a chance.”

Rounding out the top five were Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron in second (131.371 mph), Ryan Blaney in third (131.371 mph), Erik Jones in fourth (131.182 mph) and Denny Hamlin in fifth (131.057 mph).

For William Byron, it marks the second straight race that the No. 24 car will start on the front row. Byron finished second in last weeks qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway coming up short to teammate Jimmie Johnson.

Ryan Blaney, who initially topped the practice charts and broke the track record in the second round of qualifying, felt that his No .12 Ford was strong enough to win the pole, but errors by Blaney in turns 3 and 4 would cost driver No. 12.

Last year’s Food City 500 winner Kyle Busch will start 17th after coming up short of advancing to the final round of qualifying.

Live coverage for Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway begins at 2:00 p.m. Eastern on Fox Sports 1. 

Matthew Jackson
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