Rookie Kyle Larson Wins First Career Pole at Tricky Triangle

Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender and Drive4Diversity grad Kyle Larson scored his first career pole behind the wheel of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet at one of the most demanding tracks on the circuit, Pocono Raceway.

Larson took the pole in knock out qualifying with a track record speed of 183.438 mph and 49.063 seconds, qualifying him for the Sprint Unlimited. He joins rival Austin Dillon, who scored his first pole at the Daytona 500 to open the season, in rookie pole runs.

“It’s great to get my first real pole,” Larson said. “I got the pole at Richmond but that was due to qualifying rain and we were quickest in practice. This time we got to beat the rain and actually earn the pole.”

“It was an exciting third round and I had some butterflies actually going into it,” Larson continued. “I was definitely nervous. I felt like I hit all three corners as good as I could. I barely edged out Joey and he has been fast in qualifying.”

“It feels really good and allows me the confidence for Sunday.”

Right behind the rookie were the Penske duo of Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, with speeds of 183.408 mph and 182.700 mph respectively. Logano has 17 top-ten starts and Keselowski is right behind him with 16 top-ten starts for the season.

“My Shell Pennzoil Ford is really fast,” the driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford said after qualifying. “We unload today and we were loose but the car had a lot of speed in it. We definitely made some good adjustments and in qualifying trim we were decent.”

“The first lap was really good and we tried to keep up with the cycle of tires and fuel,” Logano continued. “We ran the third session really hard and I felt like we nailed the balance and all three corners.”

“I was pretty confident that that was going to be the pole and then we got beat,” Logano said. “This is our sixth front row start of the season, which is good but second sucks. It’s still something to be proud of so we have two fast race cars. I thought my lap was damn near perfect but we got beat.”

Penske teammate Brad Keselowski echoed many of Logano’s sentiments in his shortened media availability due to his travel to Iowa for the Nationwide race.

“Third is a respectable effort,” the driver of the No. 2 Alliance Truck Parts Ford said. “I always want the pole but we had to make an extra run there in the second session and that took us away from having a legitimate run with Kyle.”

“Strong effort. You can win from third and we’re happy with that and we’ll move on.”

As to his heading off to the Midwest after his qualifying at Pocono, Keselowski said that someone had to do that race and so he elected to make the trip.

“I enjoy Iowa,” Keselowski said. “The track has been good to me. Someone had to run it, either Joey or me. So, when we sat down at the start of the year to figure out who was going to start where, this was one that I thought would be good.”

Kurt Busch, behind the wheel of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet, and most recent race winner at the Brickyard Jeff Gordon, in the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet, rounded out the top-five in qualifying.

“I had a good turns one and two,” Busch said. “Just got in there and got a little bit too low and got the car out of the track and then had to peddle it all the way from the center out.”

“Still a good lap. The guys have done a good job and just have to get it right for race trim now.”

Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Jamie McMurray, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Danica Patrick qualified in the sixth through tenth positions for the 41st Annual GoBowling.com 400. The rest of the starting grid is as follows:

Pos Driver Sponsor Make
1 42 Kyle Larson Target Chevrolet
2 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford
3 2 Brad Keselowski Alliance Truck Parts Ford
4 41 Kurt Busch Haas Automation Chevrolet
5 24 Jeff Gordon Axalta Chevrolet
6 4 Kevin Harvick Mobil 1 Chevrolet
7 18 Kyle Busch M&M’s Toyota
8 1 Jamie McMurray Bad Boy Buggies Chevrolet
9 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Michael Baker International Chevrolet
10 10 Danica Patrick GoDaddy Chevrolet
11 3 Austin Dillon American Ethanol Chevrolet
12 5 Kasey Kahne Farmers Insurance Chevrolet
13 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Office Toyota
14 15 Clint Bowyer RK Motors Charlotte Toyota
15 55 Brian Vickers Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota
16 14 Tony Stewart Code 3 Associates/Mobil 1 Chevrolet
17 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe’s Chevrolet
18 20 Matt Kenseth Dollar General Toyota
19 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Chevrolet
20 47 AJ Allmendinger Scott Products Chevrolet
21 31 Ryan Newman Quicken Loans Chevrolet
22 51 Justin Allgaier AccuDoc Solutions Chevrolet
23 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford EcoBoost Ford
24 13 Casey Mears GEICO Chevrolet
25 16 Greg Biffle 3M Ford
26 99 Carl Edwards Fastenal Ford
27 9 Marcos Ambrose DeWalt Ford
28 43 Aric Almirola GoBowling.com Ford
29 27 Paul Menard CertainTeed/Menards Chevrolet
30 38 David Gilliland Long John Silver’s Ford
31 98 Josh Wise Phil Parsons Racing Chevrolet
32 40 Landon Cassill Newton Building Supplies Chevrolet
33 26 Cole Whitt Toyota of Scranton Toyota
34 32 Travis Kvapil FAS Lane Racing Ford
35 36 Reed Sorenson Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet
36 23 Alex Bowman Dr. Pepper Toyota
37 83 Ryan Truex Burger King Toyota
38 7 Michael Annett Pilot Flying J Chevrolet
39 34 David Ragan A&W Root Beer Float Ford
40 37 Dave Blaney Accell Construction Chevrolet
41 66 Joe Nemechek Land Castle Title Toyota
42 33 Alex Kennedy Little Joe’s Autos Chevrolet
43 93 Johnny Sauter Dr. Pepper Toyota

 

 

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

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