Alex Bowman, who just two weeks ago was desperately trying to debunk rumors his seat was in danger, will start the first elimination race of NASCAR's playoffs from the pole.

Bowman turned a lap at 126.720 miles per hour Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway to earn the fifth pole of his career. Bowman heads into Saturday night's elimination race ranked fourth in the Cup Series standings — best of all four Hendrick Motorsports drivers.

Bowman made the playoffs by winning the street race at Chicago in a victory that likely saved his seat in the No. 48 Chevrolet. Now in the playoffs, he's untouchable and under contract at Hendrick through 2025.

Even so, he's been dogged by rumors he'll be out of a seat at the end of the year, which Hendrick vehemently denied ahead of the start of the playoffs.

In qualifying, Bowman bested all three of his Hendrick teammates. Kyle Larson qualified second and will start Saturday night next to Bowman. William Byron qualified third.

Martin Truex Jr. of Joe Gibbs Racing was fourth and followed by Chase Briscoe of Stewart-Haas Racing and points leader Christopher Bell of Gibbs. Non-playoff driver Carson Hocevar was seventh, Denny Hamlin of Gibbs was eighth, non-playoff driver Corey LaJoie was ninth and Chase Elliott of Hendrick completed the top 10.

None of the Ford drivers made the top 10. The playoff drivers who didn't qualify inside the top 10 were Ty Gibbs (13th), Tyler Reddick (15th), Joey Logano (20th), Ryan Blaney (22nd), Brad Keselowski (23rd), Austin Cindric (27th), Harrison Burton (34th) and Daniel Suárez (35th).

The bottom four in the standings headed into elimination are Hamlin, Keselowski, Truex and Burton. The loss of three-time Daytona 500 winner Hamlin, or 2012 champion Keselowski and 2017 champion Truex would take some of NASCAR's top names out of the title chase.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing