NASCAR Cup Brickyard 400 beginning lineup: Carson Hocevar earns pole in Spire 1-2

Carson Hocevar and Spire Motorsports teammate Daniel Suarez will lead the sphere to the inexperienced flag for the 2026 version of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Hocevar was 0.056s away from Suarez, incomes his third profession pole and his second of the 2026 season. The pole lap was 48.232s, averaging 186.598mph across the historic observe.

“It is simply unbelievable,” stated Hocevar. “I bought out of the automobile and so they had been yelling and cheering and every part. I could not imagine it, and I respect it. I do not know in the event that they had been cheering simply because I beat Denny or the truth that we’re on the entrance row. I am tremendous pumped. Denny stole one from me at Michigan, and that is the house city for Jeff (Dickerson, co-owner at Spire) and everyone at Spire. Simply enjoyable to make use of our personal notes these final two years and get these vehicles higher. Simply having fun with it. These guys work actually onerous.”

Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Picture by: Logan Riely / Getty Pictures

He added that he’ll “soak this in loads” as Indianapolis is his favourite observe on the schedule.

23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick was the most effective Toyota driver in third, adopted by the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates of Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin in fourth and fifth, respectively.

The third Spire automobile wasn’t far behind both, with Michael McDowell sixth. Half-timer Corey Heim certified a robust seventh, whereas Alex Bowman led the way in which for Hendrick Motorsports in eighth. Earlier within the weekend, he introduced plans to retire after the 2027 season.

A.J. Allmendinger earned a formidable beginning spot for Kaulig Racing in ninth, and Kyle Larson rounded out the highest ten.

The very best-qualifying Ford driver was Ryan Blaney in thirteenth, and there are plenty of notables with some work to do on Sunday. Final week’s winner, Joey Logano, begins nineteenth on the grid.

William Byron will begin twenty first, Ross Chastain twenty second, Christopher Bell twenty third, Shane van Gisbergen twenty fifth, Chase Elliott twenty seventh, and defending Brickyard 400 winner Bubba Wallace again in twenty ninth.

Austin Cindric, who enters this race holding the sixteenth and remaining spot within the Chase, certified thirty fifth, whereas In-Season Problem finalist Todd Gilliland begins thirty sixth as he faces Blaney for that $1 million prize.

Qualifying recap

San Diego winner Heim set the early benchmark at 48.529s, with the part-time driver once more impressing in that No. 67 23XI Racing entry. That is his first-ever NASCAR race (in any division) on the historic speedway.

McDowell had a sketchy lap and almost wiggled up into the wall on the exit of Flip 3, nevertheless it was nonetheless sufficient to dethrone Heim for the highest spot. He didn’t keep there for lengthy, as 23XI fought again with Reddick surging to the highest of the pace charts.

Later within the session, Hocevar rocketed to the highest, over a tenth away from Reddick. Spire teammate Suarez was simply 0.056s off the pole lap. Blaney had a pole lap going till a giant carry in Flip 3. Gibbs had an analogous shot, however needed to carry on the exit of Flip 2 and misplaced his benefit down the backstretch.

Chase Elliott touched the wall between Turns 3 and 4, however aside from that, there have been no actual incidents to report from the qualifying session.

2026 Brickyard 400 full beginning lineup

1

77
 
Chevrolet

186.598

2

7
 
Chevrolet

186.382

3

45
 
Toyota

186.077

4

54
 
Toyota

185.966

5

11
 
Toyota

185.835

6

71
 
Chevrolet

185.762

7

C. Heim 23XI Racing

67
 
Toyota

185.456

8

48
 
Chevrolet

185.368

9

16
 
Chevrolet

185.345

10

5
 
Chevrolet

185.315

11

19
 
Toyota

185.269

12

41
 
Chevrolet

185.265

13

12
 
Ford

185.197

14

43
 
Toyota

185.060

15

17
 
Ford

184.991

16

6
 
Ford

184.896

17

42
 
Toyota

184.877

18

35
 
Toyota

184.782

19

3
 
Chevrolet

184.699

20

22
 
Ford

184.699

21

24
 
Chevrolet

184.574

22

1
 
Chevrolet

184.540

23

20
 
Toyota

184.287

24

47
 
Chevrolet

184.245

25

97
 
Chevrolet

184.237

26

J. Berry Wooden Brothers Racing

21
 
Ford

184.128

27

9
 
Chevrolet

183.887

28

10
 
Chevrolet

183.869

29

23
 
Toyota

183.861

30

38
 
Ford

183.494

31

C. Zilisch TrackHouse Racing

88
 
Chevrolet

183.132

32

33
 
Chevrolet

183.083

33

4
 
Ford

182.990

34

60
 
Ford

182.786

35

2
 
Ford

182.726

36

34
 
Ford

182.460

37

51
 
Chevrolet

182.072

38

62
 
Chevrolet

179.522

39

D. Dye Reside Quick Motorsports

78
 
Chevrolet

178.962

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