Heading into the 2026 NASCAR season, Kyle Busch has many doubters, but he took the first step in proving them all wrong on Wednesday night.
The two-time Cup Series champion is winless in two and a half seasons and has never won the Daytona 500, but put on a stunning performance in qualifying under the lights last night to take pole for Sunday's Great American Race.
It is the 35th pole of the 44-year-old's career, but it came as somewhat of a surprise given he had only ever topped qualifying on a superspeedway once before in his career.
Now, Busch will lead the field when the green flag drops on Sunday (2:30pm ET, FOX), looking to win his first Daytona 500 on his 21st attempt.
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Kyle Busch on 'special' Daytona 500 pole
Speaking after qualifying, Busch reflected on the special achievement and talked through how he managed to put on the performance he did.
“This is special for all of us at Richard Childress Racing; for Richard [Childress] and Jim Pohlman, with it being his first race as the crew chief," Busch explained.
"Obviously having the opportunity to come down here with fast speedway cars, and I’ve had fast speedway cars with RCR every time we’ve been here. It feels really good to sit on the pole and to have the No. 1 starting spot come Sunday. But we also want the No. 1 finishing position on Sunday.
"Thank you to everyone at ECR; Lucas Oil for everything they do for our power; and all of our partners that support this No. 8 Chevrolet team.
“I think we learned some things last year at a couple of the speedway races. I feel like those guys have really tuned in on those things that worked.
"I hope it turns out to be what we all think it should be for speed on Sunday. I’m sure we’ll find a little bit more about it tomorrow.”
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