DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Chase Briscoe led a banner night for Toyota in qualifying Wednesday for the Daytona 500 by winning the pole for NASCAR’s “Great American Race.”

It is the first Daytona 500 pole for Briscoe, who moved to Joe Gibbs Racing this season when Stewart-Haas Racing closed at the end of 2024. His move to the No. 19 gave Toyota its first pole in NASCAR’s biggest race of the season.

“A great way to start our season. Unbelievable way to start off the year. Unbelievable way to start off with Toyota,” Briscoe said. “To be able to be the guy to deliver them the first anything when they’ve already accomplished so much is pretty cool. To think I’m going to start on the front row or on the pole of the Great American Race with ultimately the great American brand of [sponsor] Bass Pro Shops is unbelievable. Can’t thank Coach Gibbs enough, the entire Joe Gibbs Racing organization.”

Briscoe’s lap of 182.745 mph held off a slew of Ford challengers. Former Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric qualified second in a Ford for Team Penske, which started from the pole last year with Joey Logano, who closed the year as NASCAR Cup Series champion.

Ford drivers claimed four of the top five spots in time trials, but only Briscoe and Cindric as the front row starters were locked in Wednesday night.

“A lot of fast Fords,” Cindric said. “Pretty good to start on the front row with one of my good friends. All in all, a great box checked for the start of this week. I think every single part of this weekend is important to setting up with an opportunity to win this race on Sunday.”

The only other drivers locked in during time trials were Toyota’s Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr., who were not guaranteed entry but posted speeds fast enough to claim two of the four “open” spots in the race.

The remainder of the starting order is set Thursday night in a pair of qualifying races.

There are nine drivers entered for four open spots and Truex and Johnson claimed two of them in time trials. Johnson is a seven-time NASCAR champion, two-time Daytona 500 winner and member of the Hall of Fame. Truex is the 2017 Cup champion and in his first year of not racing NASCAR full time.

“Both Jimmie and I were beneficiaries of their [Toyota’s] hard work on their engines,” Truex said.

Both would have been eligible to request the “world-class driver” provisional that guarantees entry as a 41st car to one driver who does not compete full time in NASCAR and brings marketability and visibility to the biggest race of the season.

The provisional will go to four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves if he fails to race his way in Thursday night. If he takes the provisional, Trackhouse Racing will not receive any points or purse money, and the field will be 41 cars — the largest field since 43 cars was the standard in 2015.

Johnson said his Legacy Motor Club was unaware of the provisional until it was announced earlier this year — even though it was a new rule included in the charter agreement teams signed in September. The rule required a team to request the provisional 90 days before the event, and the rule was not publicly announced until after the deadline for the Daytona 500 had passed.

“We didn’t know about it until the rule came out. Evidently, it was buried in the charter agreement that came out,” Johnson said earlier Wednesday. “But when the rule came out, I forget the time of the morning, three minutes later, we were on the phone with NASCAR and recognized it wasn’t within the 90 day-window and we weren’t eligible.

“We’ve had a lot of talks with everyone at NASCAR and I have a better understanding of the intent of the rule, and I would anticipate some changes following [Daytona] to better define and clarify that. When first read, our reaction wasn’t great, but it is what it is and hopefully, we have a fast enough car to get in.”

He did, just off the speed of Truex, but it was enough to ensure the two former champions will race Sunday.

The drivers who must race their way in Thursday, seeking the two remaining spots, are Anthony Alfredo, Justin Allgaier, Corey LaJoie, B.J. McLeod, Chandler Smith and J.J. Yeley. If Castroneves races his way in, there will only be one open spot available.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR filed a 68-page appeal Wednesday night — roughly one hour before the start of Daytona 500 qualifying — arguing that a federal judge erred in recognizing 23XI Motorsports and Front Row Motorsports as chartered teams for 2025 as the two organizations sue over antitrust claims.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell of the Western District of North Carolina in December issued a preliminary injunction that allowed 23XI and Front Row to receive the same rewards as a chartered team while the lawsuit wades through the court system.

23XI Racing is co-owned by NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, while Front Row Motorsports is owned by entrepreneur Bob Jenkins.

Last month, Bell denied NASCAR’s motion to dismiss the suit, and also denied NASCAR’s request that the two organizations post a bond to cover any monies they are paid as chartered teams that would have to be returned should 23XI and Front Row lose the lawsuit.

“The district court’s injunction orders flout federal antitrust law; misapply the established rules governing the use of preliminary injunctions; ignore unrebutted, legally significant evidence; and have sweeping implications for NASCAR’s 2025 Cup Series season,” NASCAR wrote. “These injunctions misuse the judicial power to force NASCAR to treat its litigation adversaries as its business partners and confidants, undermining the mutual trust that has fueled NASCAR’s growth and success.”

The timing of the appeal — despite it hitting just one hour before time trials begin for Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500 — was a coincidence in that Wednesday was a court-ordered deadline. NASCAR does not publicly comment on the lawsuit.

NASCAR has maintained that it will defend itself against antitrust claims and believes that 23XI and Front Row have a misguided case; the teams don’t like the terms of the charter agreement so were the only two out of 15 organizations that refused to sign the forms when NASCAR presented its take-it-or-leave it offer 48 hours before last season’s playoffs began.

Not liking the terms of a contract does not qualify as an antitrust case, NASCAR believes, and it is willing to see the case through to trial. Should 23XI and Front Row prevail, it is believed NASCAR will eliminate the charter system outright rather than renegotiate new charters.

“While every other team owner that was offered a new Charter with these better terms accepted it, these two held out — raising concerns about several provisions but not the mutual releases,” NASCAR wrote. “NASCAR eventually withdrew its offers to Plaintiffs and moved forward with planning its 2025 Cup Series season without them as chartered teams. So 23XI and Front Row turned to the courts, attempting to transform the Charter’s standard release provision into a trump card to belatedly secure, outside of negotiations, the Charters they regretted rejecting — even though neither team owner ever raised that provision as an issue in two years of Charter negotiations.

“With neither the facts nor the law on their side, 23XI and Front Row argue it violates the Sherman Act for sports enterprises to include such standard releases in their agreements. The district court took the bait.”

At issue are the agreements that teams asked for and were granted in 2016. A charter guarantees each car that holds one a spot in the field each week, as well as guaranteed prize money and other financial incentives.

There are 36 guaranteed spots in each race, with four “open” spots for cars that do not hold charters. NASCAR believes 23XI and Front Row should be open cars because they did not sign the charter agreements.

NASCAR also did not want to approve the sale of charters from now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing to the two teams, which each purchased one charter to expand their organizations from two cars to three. Had Bell not granted the injunction to recognize the two teams as chartered for 2025, a combined six cars between the two organizations would not have received an automatic berth into the Daytona 500.

23XI fields Toyotas for newcomer Riley Herbst, as well as Tyler Reddick, last year’s regular-season champion, and Bubba Wallace. Front Row field Fords for Noah Gragson, Todd Gilliland and newcomer Zane Smith.

“At this point, NASCAR would prefer to extend the perks of the 2025 Charter to owners committed to enhancing NASCAR’s competitiveness with other sports for fans, sponsors, and media dollars — rather than owners that undermine NASCAR’s brand,” the sanctioning body wrote in the appeal.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A controversial new NASCAR rule designed for “world-class drivers” could give Helio Castroneves an automatic berth into the Daytona 500, and, should the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner use the provisional, it would make for the largest field in a decade.

It’s a complicated rule that was written into the charter agreement that 13 teams signed last September and is similar to a “promoters provisional” in that it gives NASCAR the ability to designate one driver as a guaranteed 41st entry.

Three-time Daytona 500 Denny Hamlin said the rule “reeks of desperation” by NASCAR, calling it nothing but a gimmick to attract big stars to stock car racing. Others wondered why the provisional went to Castroneves, who at 49 will be making his NASCAR debut, instead of seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, a two-time Daytona 500 winner.

The rule is designed for drivers who don’t currently race full time in NASCAR, so Johnson and 2017 Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. would have been eligible for consideration for the provisional.

But their teams never put in the request, which must be done 90 days before the event. Only Trackhouse Racing requested the provisional for Castroneves, who enters Wednesday’s qualifying as the only driver eligible for the 41st spot.

“I think Jimmie Johnson is a world-class driver, but I guess other people don’t,” Alex Bowman said. “It’s an interesting rule for sure. There’s a lot of hype and importance to the sport to have people like [Castroneves] that come in and, if they miss the race, it kind of hurts the whole thing.

“So I get it, but I also wish some of our past champions were respected in the same way in some sense.”

Castroneves will use the provisional only if he fails in traditional qualifying to claim one of the four open spots in what was supposed to be a 40-car field. If he uses it, the 41 cars will be the most in the Daytona 500 since 2015, when 43 cars was still standard.

Trackhouse and Castroneves also won’t receive any points or payouts if he’s the 41st driver, and all drivers who finish behind him will be moved up one position in the standings.

The rule has divided the field, even though it probably will come into play only at Daytona International Speedway, where nine drivers are vying for the four open spots. NASCAR’s charter system guarantees entry to 36 cars every race.

“Aside from the Daytona 500, we don’t get in a spot very often where drivers of that caliber are going home,” Tyler Reddick said. “I don’t know where to fall on this. On one hand, I would hate for a guy like Lewis Hamilton to come over here and attempt to start the 500… [and] something keeps him from running the race. We also don’t just want to let them have a spot in the race — like, they have to earn it.”

What if Johnson and Truex had requested the provisional? Logically, if multiple drivers had requested the provisional, the most sense would have been for it to go to the highest qualifier.

Nope.

If NASCAR does receive multiple requests, NASCAR will decide who the designated “world-class driver” is ahead of the event. The criteria listed in the charter for the rule states “the “Open Exemption” position is intended for a driver who will significantly impact the promotion of the event and grow the prominence of the sport.

In a competition briefing held for media last month, a hypothetical scenario was posed about what NASCAR would do if seven-time Formula 1 champion Hamilton, four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen, six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon and Johnson, who is also a NASCAR Hall of Famer, all put in a request for the same race.

“I’d love to have that problem,” said John Probst, NASCAR senior vice president of racing development.

NASCAR could have that problem later this year when it goes to Mexico City, where several teams are exploring deals to enter Juan Pablo Montoya in the race, and who knows who could show up at a road course – Shane van Gisbergen was brought into the inaugural street race at Chicago, won it and by the end of the year had left his Australian V8 Supercars career behind for NASCAR.

At Indianapolis in 2023, former F1 drivers Jenson Button and Kamui Kobayashi were both in the field, while Button was part of the same field as Kimi Raikkonen to make it two F1 world champions in the 2023 race at Circuit of the Americas.

“I can argue both sides of the fence. You’d hate to have a Helio Castroneves, a Max Verstappen, a Lewis Hamilton or someone come in to run a race and then miss the show due to something silly,” Chase Elliott said. “So I can certainly see that aspect of it from a promoter. But I also think that with prestigious races, there should be some sort of integrity in making the show.

“I think that’s part of what makes the race prestigious. You know, it’s a hard event to make. I think you see that with the Indianapolis 500, or you see that at the Chili Bowl, right? It’s a hard race to make. It’s a big deal just to get into the show. I just don’t want to ever degrade or hurt the long-term integrity of the sport and take the prestige out of events that should be some of our biggest days of the year.”