In the 55th NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session of his career, Zane Smith earned his first career pole position on Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway.
Smith’s lap of 182.174 miles per hour was enough to barely edge two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch for the pole in the second round of qualifying.
“I wish I could take a lot of the credit for it, but truthfully, just a really fast Ford,” Smith told Prime Video’s Larry McReynolds. “Polesitter in the Cup Series, that’s awesome.”
Busch will join Smith on the front row, with Joey Logano, Ryan Preece and Austin Dillon rounding out the top-five. Chris Buescher, Austin Cindric, Josh Berry, Ryan Blaney and Ty Gibbs completed the top-10.
Other notable qualifiers include Christopher Bell in 11th, Denny Hamlin in 13th, Bubba Wallace in 20th, Kyle Larson in 25th and Chase Elliott in 30th.
Defending spring Talladega winner Tyler Reddick will start 26th on Sunday, with Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who won at Talladega in October 2024, starting 35th. J.J. Yeley will bring up the rear of the starting grid in 39th.
The Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega will go green shortly after 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, with coverage on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Pre-race coverage will start at 2 p.m. ET on both FOX and MRN.
