Bowman pips Berry to Homestead-Miami Cup Series pole
03/22/2025 03:46 PM
Alex Bowman stole the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway late in Saturday's session when he went to the top of the board at 168.845mph (31.982s).
Bowman was the third to last driver to make a qualifying lap. The pole is the sixth of his career and first of the season. It's also his first pole at Homestead-Miami.
"We've overcome a lot this year," Bowman told Prime. "I think a lot of people don't realize the amount of things we've had go wrong throughout our races, and honestly, those seventh-place finishes are pretty good, all things considered. We 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. We'll have a good pit stall and put our best foot forward so far."
Josh Berry continued his strong start to the season by qualifying second. Berry clocked in at 168.460mph to tie his career-best starting effort from the spring 2024 race at Bristol.
Noah Gragson qualified third at 168.219mph. He was sitting on the provisional pole before Bowman made his run. A third-place qualifying effort ties a career-best for Gragson from the 2024 spring race at Kansas.
Chase Briscoe qualified fourth at 168.140mph, William Byron fifth at 168.046mph and Ryan Blaney sixth at 168.010 mph.
John Hunter Nemechek ran seventh at 167.853mph, Austin Cindric eighth at 167.738mph, Bubba Wallace ninth at 167.645mph and AJ Allmendinger 10th at 167.629mph.
The rest of the top 15 in qualifying were Chris Buescher (11th), Joey Logano (12th), Ty Gibbs (13th), Kyle Larson (14th), and Carson Hocevar (15th). Christopher Bell, the 2023 winner in Miami, qualified 16th.
Further back in the starting grid will be Chase Elliott (18th) and Tyler Reddick (20th). Reddick is the defending race winner in Miami.
Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin will start outside the top 20. Busch qualified 22nd and Hamlin 23rd.
Erik Jones did make a qualifying run and clocked in 28th fastest. Jones reported he ran over something in practice, and there was a hole in the underbody of the car that needed to be repaired.
Brad Keselowski qualified 32nd.
NEXT: Straight Talk Wireless 400 at 3 p.m. ET Sunday.
