With seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson retiring at the end of the 2020 season, Hendrick Motorsports moved Alex Bowman to the #48 seat vacated by Johnson for the 2021 season. Bowman answered the move by claiming the pole for the Daytona 500 during front-row qualifying for the official season opener Wednesday night with a 47.056-second/191.261 mph lap. The pole is Bowman’s second for the Daytona 500 and puts him on the front row for the event monikered “The Great American Race” for the fourth-consecutive season.
“I’m just really proud of everybody, all our partners at Hendrick Motorsports,” Bowman said. “Thanks to Team Chevy for giving us great race cars. It feels really good. It’s awesome for Ally. I don’t know if they’ve gotten a pole yet. I figured they probably had a pole with Jimmie somewhere, but I don’t know. Man, it’s just awesome to be driving this #48 car.”
Bowman’s latest pole is the sixth for Hendrick Motorsports in the last seven editions of the Daytona 500.
Bowman’s teammate William Byron claimed the second starting position to complete a Hendrick Motorsports sweep of Daytona 500 front-row starting positions — the seventh time for a Hendrick Motorsports front-row sweep for NASCAR’s most popular race.
“Yeah, I feel like it’s always — Hendrick always gives us great cars to come down here and qualify well and also race well, so you never know which guys are going to have the speed out of the four of us. To see how we approached the weeks leading up to this race and how we were really determined to go out there and start off strong with, obviously, the Clash last night, finishing fifth was great for us, good solid start, but our goal today was to go out there and try to qualify on the front row. It’s nice to be able to kind of check that off. And great to see both Alex and I, the 48 team and the 24 team, both up there.”
The two front row starting positions were the only two positions on the grid cemented Wednesday night, with the remainder of the 40-car starting lineup to be set Thursday night in two Bluegreen Vacation Duel races.
While they don’t know their exact starting positions for Sunday’s race, 36 teams/driver with charters do know they’ll have a starting position somewhere on the grid. Among drivers with the eight open, or non-chartered, teams, Ryan Preece and David Ragan also know they’ll have a starting position for the Daytona 500 after posting the fastest qualifying laps among the open drivers. Preece was eighth, overall, and Ragan 13th among the 44 entrants.
“I knew we would have speed in our #37 Cottonelle Chevrolet, but I am really proud of the effort that everyone at JTG Daugherty Racing organization put in to get our car as fast as it is and qualify on speed into the Daytona 500. We ran some solid laps in practice today, and I think that prepared me for tonight and to put down one solid lap to qualify us in to the race on Sunday. We’re also racing in the same Duel as our teammate [Ricky Stenhouse Jr.], and it’ll be good to practice drafting with them tomorrow night. This is the best start to Speedweeks and the 2021 season that we could think of, and I’m looking forward to a strong night tomorrow and a stronger race on Sunday.”
Two open cars didn’t make qualifying attempts on Wednesday, though. Noah Gragson wasn’t allowed a qualifying attempt after his #62 Bear Motorsports car failed inspection multiple times. Derrike Cope had his #15 Rick Ware Racing entry in line for qualifying, but his car was pushed out of line because of an engine issue.
The lineups for Thursday’s Duel races are set based on Wednesday’s qualifying results, with odd number qualifiers, led by pole sitter Bowman, in the first Duel, starting in the order in which they qualified. Even-numbered qualifiers will contest the second Duel, led by Byron.
Aric Almirola was third in Wednesday’s qualifying session, and he was the only driver other than Bowman and Byron to post a lap speed over 190 mph. Darrell Wallace Jr. was fourth with new team 23XI Racing, and 2020 Daytona 500 pole sitter Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was fifth.
Daniel Suarez, Stenhouse, Wallace and Byron were all provisional pole sitters at some point during Wednesday night’s qualifying session before Bowman went out 36th and claimed the pole.
