Alex Bowman wins pole at Daytona 500, teammate William Byron joins on front row

Thursday update: Follow along for Duel 1 and Duel 2 results to set Daytona 500 starting lineup

UPDATE: 8:40 p.m. Alex Bowman smoked the field with a time of 47.056 for a hot lap of 191.26 miles per hour to win the pole at the 2021 Daytona 500.

No other racer was within a quarter-second of the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet sponsored by Ally Bank. His teammate William Byron finished second at 190.22 MPH, so the front row of the Great American Race will be two Chevys.

The fastest Ford belonged to Aric Almirola, who finished third and will have the pole for the first Duel race on Thursday night.

The Daytona 500 kicks off with pole qualifying on Wednesday night from Daytona International Speedway.

44 drivers will take a hot lap, and the top two will be in the pole position and the outside of Row 1 for The Great American Race. The rest will end up in the Duel races tomorrow night of 50 laps each that will set the order for the rest of the field.

Only 40 racers will make the main field, and 36 of them have guaranteed spots even if they wipe out tonight and hit the wall thanks to the charter system implemented by NASCAR. That means eight non-chartered drivers are competing for four spots in the field. Who gets those spots, and who ends up on the pole for the big race on Valentine’s Day afternoon, are the stories we’ll be following.

Here is the order of drivers for pole qualifying at the Daytona 500

* non-chartered driver now qualified for Daytona 500 field