Kyle Larson claimed the Busch Light Pole Award at Martinsville Speedway Saturday evening on a nostalgic weekend honoring Hendrick Motorsports’ 40th anniversary in NASCAR.
He drove his No. 5 HMS Chevrolet, adorned in a special paint scheme to honor the occasion, to the top of the speed charts with a 96.034 mph lap during qualifying.
Larson spoke about the importance of track position.
“Yeah, we’ve all seen passing on short tracks have been really difficult in the Next Gen cars. So, I think qualifying has been more important than it has ever been here these last few years,” he said. “So yeah, I mean getting track position on Saturday, qualifying well, usually pays dividends as long as your team can execute on Sunday. It’s great to get another pole on a short-track, back-to-back weekends. I felt like it really helped our race out last week, and as long as we execute tomorrow, it should help our race out, as well.”
It was Larson’s second consecutive pole after starting first at Richmond Raceway and his 18th Cup Series career pole.
Bubba Wallace will start beside Larson on the front row for his fifth top-10 start this year after posting a qualifying lap of 96.029 mph in the 23XI Racing No. 23 Toyota.
“Of all people, it’d be Larson by a thousandth,” Wallace joked. “Proud of our team though, so it’s good.”
Chase Elliott (95.869 mph) will start third followed by Martin Truex Jr. (95.864 mph) and Chase Briscoe (95.830 mph) to round out the top five. Rounding out the top-10 were Joey Logano (95.811 mph), Josh Berry (95.806 mph), Denny Hamlin (95.738 mph), Ryan Blaney (95.559 mph) and Alex Bowman (95.487 mph).
You can tune into the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out 400 on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on FS1 with radio coverage provided by MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Complete Starting Lineup:
- Kyle Larson
- Bubba Wallace
- Chase Elliott
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Chase Briscoe
- Joey Logano
- Josh Berry
- Denny Hamlin
- Ryan Blaney
- Alex Bowman
- Kyle Busch
- Ross Chastain
- Brad Keselowski
- Austin Cindric
- Ty Gibbs
- Todd Gilliland
- Erik Jones
- William Byron
- Tyler Reddick
- Christopher Bell
- Daniel Suarez
- Ryan Preece
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Zane Smith
- Carson Hocevar
- Noah Gragson
- Justin Haley
- Austin Dillon
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Chris Buescher
- Kaz Grala
- Corey LaJoie
- Josh Williams
- Harrison Burton
- Michael McDowell
- Daniel Hemric
- David Starr
