Bowman beats Berry and Gragson to Homestead NASCAR Cup pole

Alex Bowman is hoping to continue the trend of drivers whose surnames start with the letter ‘B’ winning every race this year, and he certainly improved his chances via his Saturday qualifying effort. Thanks to a helpful cloud, he was able to put the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on pole position.  

Noah Gragson, who was just the fifth driver out on track, held onto the top spot for most of the session while several contenders struggled. As the track warmed up in the Florida sun, no one could match the No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford as Gragson came closer and closer to collecting his first career NASCAR Cup Series pole after 80 tries.

Perfect timing

However, as clouds moved over the track in the final few minutes, the asphalt began to cool and the last drivers out were able to capitalize on it. Bowman rocketed to P1, beating Gragson by over a tenth of a second. A visibly frustrated Gragson marched back to the garage area as Berry then claimed 2nd, displacing Gragson on the front row. Bowman ended up beating last week’s race winner, Berry, by just 0.073s for the top spot, earning his sixth career Cup Series pole and his first at a 1.5-mile intermediate track.

“Looking up, looks like we got some clouds. But yeah, I feel like we struggled a little bit in practice on the long run but were really fast on the short run,” said Bowman in his interview to FOX Sports 1.

“We’ve overcome a lot this year. I think people don’t realize the amount of things we’ve had go wrong throughout our races … just need to have everything go right and execute all day. I feel like we’ve got some work to do for tomorrow on the long run for sure, but at least we’re starting up front and will have a good pit stall.”

Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Jonathan Bachman – Getty Images

Berry will start second, in his third career front row start, the best qualifying effort for the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford since winning pole at Dover in 2020. Berry is currently in the playoffs after earning his first career victory last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but now he has the chance to possibly earn the historic Wood Brothers team their first multi-win season since 1981.

“Just so happy with everyone on this No. 21 team,” said Berry. “They’re making me look good right now. We got really good cars. Just thank you to everyone at Wood Brothers Racing and Team Penske … it’s been a fun start to the season.”

Josh Berry, Wood Brothers Racing Ford

Photo by: James Gilbert / Getty Images

Gragson ended up third, Chase Briscoe fourth, and William Byron fifth. Ryan Blaney, John-Hunter Nemechek, Austin Cindric, Bubba Wallace, and AJ Allmendinger rounded out the top-ten.

But due to the ever-changing conditions, there are various star drivers starting deeper in the pack than expected. Friday night’s Truck Series winner Kyle Larson qualified 14th as he aims to complete the weekend sweep while Christopher Bell — who has the best average finish here of all active drivers — was 16th. Tyler Reddick, who won at Homestead just a few months ago, timed in 20th. Other notable names such as Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain, and Brad Keselowski will all have some work to do on Sunday as well.

Photos from Homestead-Miami: Practice & Qualifying