Kyle Larson collects NASCAR Cup Series pole at Iowa Speedway

Kyle Larson scored the Busch Light Pole Award Saturday at Iowa Speedway. The Hendrick Motorsports driver will lead the field to green in the NASCAR Cup Series debut at the 0.875-mile track.

It is Larson’s fourth pole this season and his 20th career pole. He outpaced the field with a 136.458 mph qualifying lap in 23.084 seconds in his No. 5 Chevrolet.

“Obviously, happy to get the pole,” Larson said. “It helped to go out last, probably. I’m sure the track was continuing to get a little bit better. We got to watch SMT (data) of everybody’s runs, so that helps. But it also makes you a little bit more nervous when you see everybody out there struggling. Thankfully, my lap was mostly comfortable, a little bit loose like everybody was. But we were able to piece together two pretty consistent laps and be fast enough on that second lap to get it done.”

Ryan Blaney will start beside Larson on the front row in his No. 12 Team Penske Ford after a 136.311 mph lap.

“It would have been nice [to win the pole], obviously,” Blaney commented. “But that’s a big improvement from yesterday. We did a lot of work overnight and this morning to figure out how to be better than where we were yesterday at the end of practice. We’re really proud of that effort.”

Josh Berry, William Byron and Brad Keselowski completed the top five fastest drivers in the qualifying session followed by Chase Briscoe, Kyle Busch, Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell to round out the top 10. Bell, however, will start from the rear of the field after crashing during practice which necessitated going to a backup car for the race.

Austin Cindric will also go to a backup car after a tire failure during practice.

Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol will be broadcast on the USA network at 7 p.m. ET with radio coverage provided by MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Complete Starting Lineup: