He led both practices on Friday and on Saturday, he would score the pole for the Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The lap of 29.295 seconds marks his second pole of the season in his second start of the year.
“We never ran two laps yesterday, and I knew our teammate was pretty fast in the 2 (Brian Sc0tt),” Dillon commented on running a second lap in the final round, which was quicker than his first. “That was pretty flat out there – that’s all I’ve had. We had a solid car all weekend – won practice, and now won qualifying. Hope to end up in victory lane later today.”
Brian Scott would qualify second to give Richard Childresss Racing a sweep of the front row. The organization committed to making themselves stronger during the off-season after having their drivers finish fourth and fifth in the points standings behind JR Motorsports 1-2 finish.
“That’s an RCR/ECR (Earnhardt Childress Racing Engines) front row,” Scott commented. “That’s the second week in a row that we’ve qualified second. We have a fast car and it’s great to start on the front row. We were just a little tighter than we needed to be. We have a fast car for the race so hoping to have a great run.”
Ryan Blaney would qualify third in his first start of the season, followed by Brendan Gaughan and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt is trying to give crew chief Dave Elenz his second straight victory in a row after Kevin Harvick scored the win last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Earnhardt’s teammates Regan Smith and Chase Elliott were sixth and seventh, respectively, followed by Aric Almirola, Chris Buescher, Denny Hamlin and Darrell Wallace Jr.
“For whatever reason, I’m not good at qualifying so we struggle a little bit in qualifying,” Hamlin commented. “I’m really looking forward to the race. I feel like we have a good car. Thankful for the opportunity, and obviously thinking about Kyle (Busch) racing in his hometown. I wish I could sub him in here for the session.”
Elliott Sadler would qualify 13th, followed by Ryan Sieg, Daniel Suarez, Brennan Poole, Mike Bliss, Ryan Reed, Blake Koch and Ty Dillon.
“We put everything like Austin’s car, and just missed it,” Ty said. “I hate this. This is the second straight week that we haven’t qualified well. Oh well. We’ll just drive through there and put on another solid show, again. Just disappointed to qualify like this two weeks in a row. Just hard on the splitter and we’ve been making adjustments, getting it slowly off the splitter.”
Dexter Bean and Josh Reaume failed to qualify for the event. The first session had a small delay as a result of debris – a spring rubber – in turns one and two. Brendan Gaughan and Eric McClure both hit it, with Gaughan receiving no damage and McClure recieving significant front end damage.
