Larson bests McMurray for Sonoma pole

It's an all Chip Ganassi Racing front row for the Toyota Save / Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.

Kyle Larson bested his teammate Jamie McMurray in the final round of qualifying with a lap of 95.295 mph to win the pole. It is Larson's third pole of the season and second straight after he won both the pole and the race last weekend at Michigan. It is also his first pole at Sonoma.

"The whole lap actually felt bad," said Larson after he slightly wheel-hopped in Turn 11. "I missed up into (Turn) 1, into (Turn) 2 and was out a little bit too far. I felt like I gave up enough there I wouldn't have a shot at the pole.

"I thought maybe I'd maintain and run the same lap time as the run previous run, so was surprised when I saw the (75.17) pop up on my dash and happy about that. This is cool to get a pole on a road course, my home state."

Larson is the series point leader while McMurray is putting together one of his best seasons, sitting seventh in points. One of the first cars to go out in the final round of qualifying, McMurray easily jumped to the top of the board with a lap of 95.204 mph and was close to notching what would have been his fourth Sonoma pole.

"I don't know if you feel like you got everything, but our Cessna Chevy was good both runs and we made a little adjustment for the scuff tires," McMurray said. "I was really happy that we were able to run quicker than we did on stickers and I thought I did a really good job. There wasn't a corner that stuck out.

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"The first run Turn 7 I messed up, but overall that was a really good lap – Kyle just got a little bit more. I thought he was going to give it back to me in Turn 11 – the lap tracker is painful when you go first, it's horrible to have to watch that – but that's cool. That (42) team's been on a role and our whole Chip Ganassi Racing team has been awesome this year."

Martin Truex Jr. was third fastest at 94.947 mph. Kyle Busch was fourth at 94.939 mph and AJ Allmendinger was fifth at 94.821 mph.

Danica Patrick (94.773 mph) was sixth fastest, Ryan Blaney (94.716 mph) was seventh fastest, Chase Elliott in his backup car (94.536 mph) was eighth fastest, Chris Buescher (94.382 mph) was ninth fastest, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (94.370 mph) was 10th fastest.
Billy Johnson will start 26th in his debut for Richard Petty Motorsports while Alon Day will start 32nd in his debut with BK Racing.

Matt Kenseth, who had to change an engine Friday, did not complete a qualifying lap. With having to already start in the rear of the field, Kenseth went out on track and slowly ran half a lap before returning to pit road. He will start 38th.