Chase Briscoe gives Toyota its first Daytona 500 pole; will start first in his Joe Gibbs Racing debut

Chase Briscoe will start first in his debut for Joe Gibbs Racing, putting a Toyota on the pole position of the Daytona 500 for the first time in history.

Briscoe, who drove the past four seasons for Stewart-Haas Racing until the team was shuttered, turned a lap at 182.745 mph in the No. 19 Toyota Camry.

"It's a great way to start our season," Briscoe told FS1. "What an unbelievable way to start off the year. Unbelievable way to start off with Toyota, to be able to be the guy to deliver them the first of anything when they've already accomplished so much is pretty cool. Man, to think I'm going to start on the pole of the Great American Race is unbelievable."

Toyota entered NASCAR's premier series in 2007 but has lagged behind Chevrolet and Ford in battling for the Daytona 500 pole position until Wednesday night.

It's the second Daytona 500 pole position for Joe Gibbs Racing, which last qualified first for the season opener with Bobby Labonte in 1998.

"Just can't thank Coach Gibbs, the entire Joe Gibbs Racing organization," Briscoe said. "The whole offseason, everybody kept telling me the focus was trying to qualify better at superspeedways. That's something I really struggled at last year. For our 19 group to come here and sit on the pole at the biggest race of the year is pretty special."

Austin Cindric qualified second in the No. 2 Ford at 182.463.

With only the top two positions set in the starting lineup, Briscoe and Cindric will form the front row of the 67th Great American Race. The rest of the starting spots will be set by two qualifying races Thursday night.