Alex Bowman Snags Second Cup Pole of Year; Stenhouse to Start 2nd

Alex Bowman has enjoyed a very good start to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, and after just nine races, he already has his career-best year as far as qualifying goes. On Saturday, Bowman secured the pole position for Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

STARTING LINEUP: Food City 500 at Bristol

Bowman turned the fastest lap that's ever been turned in the Next Gen car at Bristol Motor Speedway, a 14.912 second (128.675 mph) lap time, on his pole-winning run. The pole marks the second pole position of Bowman's season. This season marks the first season of Bowman's career where he has more than a single pole position, and he still has 27 more races to keep padding his stats.

With the pole, Bowman moved to seven career NASCAR Cup Series pole positions, and he took the pole by a slim margin of 0.013 seconds over Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Stenhouse, who drives the No. 47 HYAK Motorsports Chevrolet, was the fastest driver in practice earlier in the afternoon, and narrowly missed out on his first pole position since the 2020 Daytona 500.

This is the first front row start that Stenhouse has earned in a qualifying session since the 2021 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and its his first front row start since the second race of the 2023 season, where he claimed the runner-up starting spot by way of the NASCAR performance metric.

Starting behind the front row of Bowman and Stenhouse will be Kyle Larson, and Denny Hamlin in Row 2.

Larson started the weekend off on a somber note with the passing of Jon Edwards, his public relations representative, who was also the communications director for Hendrick Motorsports. The driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series, was attempting to become the second driver to ever accomplish a three-race NASCAR National Series weekend sweep this weekend, however, he came up short of the win in a second-place effort in Friday night's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event.

Hamlin comes into this race on a two-race winning streak. The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota is the defending winner of the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, and if he can defend his win on Sunday, Hamlin will make history for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Last year's race was interesting as high-tire wear plagued many throughout the event, however, Hamlin, who is one of the best at tire conservation in the sport, was able to outlast the competition. After practice on Saturday, where tires were cording after roughly 40 laps, Hamlin feels that tires could once again be a major factor in Sunday's race at Bristol.

"I wouldn't have expected it, but certainly it looks like the formula is striking again," Hamlin said in a post-practice interview on Prime Video. "Everyone probably came here thinking we're going all out, but maybe that's not the case."

Along with Christopher Bell, who won three consecutive races earlier this year, if Hamlin nabs his third-straight win, JGR will become the first organization to ever have two different drivers record three-consecutive wins in a single NASCAR Cup Series season.

Ryan Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Christopher Bell, AJ Allmendinger, Carson Hocevar, and Justin Haley rounded out the top-10 qualifiers in Saturday's qualifying session for the Food City 500.

Overcast conditions early in the session, which rolled out during the second half of qualifying led to an unpredictable starting lineup. Among the drivers, who benefitted from early cloud cover were Ty Dillon (12th), and Jesse Love (19th), who is making his NASCAR Cup Series debut this weekend in the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing entry.

Lack of cloud cover late in the session led to rough qualifying performances or William Byron (26th), Tyler Reddick (27th), and Ross Chastain (35th).

Kyle Busch, who qualified 15th, and Joey Logano, who qualified 38th, encountered issues during their qualifying runs.

Busch spun on the second lap of his qualifying effort.

.@KyleBusch goes for a spin in qualifying. 😬 pic.twitter.com/CXdrhynffR
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 12, 2025

Busch luckily avoided crashing into anything, but the spin will now likely put the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team at a tire disadvantage in Sunday's race, which seems like it'll be a tire conservation event.

Logano nearly spun on the exit of Turn 2 on his opening lap of qualifying and slapped the outside wall with the right rear of his No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

Damage from the wall for @joeylogano's No. 22. pic.twitter.com/UW5L6Zgsme
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 12, 2025

Logano's car received damage, which will likely result in post-qualifying repairs.

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