NASCAR playoffs at Watkins Glen starting lineup: Ross Chastain wins first pole of 2024 at The Glen

Chastain plays playoff spoiler by winning his second career Cup Series pole

By Steven Taranto

Sep 14, 2024 at 3:18 pm ET • 2 min read

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Ross Chastain won the pole for the Go Bowling at The Glen at Waktins Glen International on Saturday afternoon, posting a lap of 72.130 (122.279 MPH) in the final round of qualifying to earn his first pole of the 2024 season and the second of his Cup career. Chastain's first and only prior pole had come at Nashville Superspeedway in 2023, a race which he went on to win.

Chastain triumphed in qualifying over the 16 playoff drivers, who will be led to the green flag by outside polesitter Martin Truex Jr. Five playoff drivers in all qualified in the top 10 including three in the top five, with Truex followed by Alex Bowman in fourth, Austin Cindric in fifth, Atlanta winner Joey Logano in seventh and Atlanta runner-up Daniel Suarez in eighth.

Playoff drivers set to start outside the top 10 are led by defending Watkins Glen winner William Byron in 11th, with Chase Briscoe 12th, Chase Elliott 14th, Ty Gibbs 15th, Tyler Reddick 16th, Christopher Bell 17th, Kyle Larson 20th, Denny Hamlin 22nd, Brad Keselowski 28th, Ryan Blaney 30th and Harrison Burton 33rd.

A spin for @dennyhamlin! pic.twitter.com/7C2E0CVyFN
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 14, 2024

Hamlin's midpack qualifying effort marked at least an improvement from a week ago in Atlanta, when he suffered a powertrain issue that left him with the slowest lap of any driver, but he was unable to avoid Saturday's on-track activity without another mishap: Hamlin spun in turn 1 during practice as he and the rest of the field sought to try and find the limits of a new tire compound with aggressive levels of wear and falloff introduced by Goodyear.

Shane van Gisbergen, the former V8 Supercars champion who will race in Cup full-time beginning in 2025, qualified third to match his best career starting spot. SVG previously started third in his Cup debut at the Chicago Street Course in 2023, a race in which he went on to become the first driver in NASCAR's modern era to ever win in his first Cup start.

Motorsports great Juan Pablo Montoya, who raced in NASCAR full-time from 2007 to 2013 in-between two Indianapolis 500 victories and seven Grand Prix victories in Formula 1, qualified 34th driving a third car for 23XI Racing. Sunday's race will mark Montoya's first Cup start since the 2014 Brickyard 400.