You'd be forgiven if you looked at the results of Friday night's NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session at Bristol Motor Speedway and determined there must have been some kind of an error.
Kaulig Racing's A.J. Allmendinger took the pole position for Saturday night's Bass Pro Shops Night Race at the four-turn, 0.533-mile (0.858-kilometer) high-banked Bristol, Tennessee oval with a lap time of 15.117 seconds (126.930 miles per hour) behind the wheel of his No. 16 Chevrolet.
He beat out Team Penske's Ryan Blaney, the highest qualifier among the 16 drivers still in championship contention, by just 0.003 seconds to secure his first pole position since 2015.
A full starting lineup can be found here.
Allmendinger takes shock Bristol pole, first oval pole since 2012
But both of Allmendinger's pole positions in 2015 with JTG Daugherty Racing came on road courses, one at Sonoma Raceway and the other at Watkins Glen International. He hadn't taken a pole position for an oval race since 2012, back when he competed for Team Penske.
Allmendinger took pole at Kansas Speedway in April 2012 and led 44 laps but finished 32nd, 10 laps off the lead lap. Prior to his pole this weekend at Bristol, he had competed in 314 races since that race at Kansas, including 274 on ovals.
A total of 488 races have been contested since that race, including 439 on ovals.
Allmendinger, who did qualify in an impressive third at Richmond Raceway last month, has an average starting position of 15.1 through 29 races this year, his best since he posted a 14.9 mark in 2011. However, he has only led four laps in 2025, which is his lowest among seasons he's actually competed in since he led no laps in 18 races back in 2013.
In nine previous seasons as a full-time driver, he has only once led fewer than four laps, that coming in 2009 when he also led none.
Tune in to the CW Network at 7:30 p.m. ET this Saturday night for the live broadcast of the Bass Pro Shops Night Race from Bristol Motor Speedway. Start a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss it!