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Larson rockets to Martinsville pole, barely edging Wallace
Kyle Larson barely nipped Bubba Wallace for the pole in NASCAR Cup Series qualifying Saturday evening at Martinsville Speedway.
Larson, the final driver to make a qualifying lap, won the pole in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet at 96.034mph (19.718s). It’s his second pole at Martinsville Speedway, where he won a year ago.
Hendrick Motorsports is chasing its 29th victory at Martinsville Speedway in its 40th anniversary race.
Wallace will start second. The fastest lap for the 23XI Racing driver was 96.029mph (19.719s).
Chase Elliott qualified third (95.869mph), Martin Truex Jr., fourth (95.864mph) and Chase Briscoe, fifth (95.830mph). It’s the best qualifying effort for Briscoe this season.
Joey Logano qualified sixth (95.811mph), Josh Berry, seventh (95.806mph), Denny Hamlin, eighth (95.738mph), Ryan Blaney, ninth (95.559mph) and Alex Bowman, 10th (95.487mph).
Outside the top 10 sat Kyle Busch in 11th and Ross Chastain, 12th. Brad Keselowski qualified 13th, Austin Cindric, 14th, and Ty Gibbs, 15th.
The fourth Hendrick Motorsports driver, William Byron, qualified 18th. Byron’s fastest lap was 94.946mph.
Christopher Bell qualified 20th, Noah Gragson, 26th, Austin Dillon, 28th, and John Hunter Nemechek, 29th. Corey LaJoie, who was fastest in practice, qualified 32nd.
Josh Williams qualified 33rd in the No. 16 for Kaulig Racing. David Starr starts last, 37th.
NEXT: Cook Out 400 at 3 p.m. ET Sunday.
Kelly Crandall
Kelly has been on the NASCAR beat full-time since 2013, and joined RACER as chief NASCAR writer in 2017. Her work has also appeared in NASCAR.com, the NASCAR Illustrated magazine, and NBC Sports. A corporate communications graduate from Central Penn College, Crandall is a two-time George Cunningham Writer of the Year recipient from the National Motorsports Press Association.
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