Kyle Larson won his first pole of the season in qualifying for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway.
Larson turned a lap of 158.103 mph around the one-mile concrete oval to take the top spot for Sunday’s 11th race of the 2018 season.
It was the Chip Ganassi Racing driver’s fifth career pole. (All-Time Pole Winners)
“I felt like I nailed that lap pretty good,” Larson explained. “Everything from coming to the green to (Turns) 1 and 2 were really good. (Turns) 3 and 4 I maybe left a little bit out there. I got in there a little hot and up the track. I planned on kind of moving up the race track each round. The first round caught me of guard. I was really loose getting in, but they made great adjustments on the DC Solar Chevy throughout the next two rounds. The second round we were probably a little too tight, but they kind of found the happy medium there for the final round. So, I’m happy about that.
“We’ve always qualified good here. I had yet to get a pole. I’ve raced well here, but have yet to get a win. Maybe we’ll get both out of the way this weekend.”
Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the top five.
Chase Elliott, Daniel Suarez, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin completed the first 10 qualifiers.
“I don’t think as a whole our performance right now is as good as it was last fall,” said Elliott, who is still looking for his first career Cup win. “That being said, I think we have some work to do. Now, we have made some improvements and some gains coming into the weekend that we hope improve on Sunday. Will that improve us to the point where we can go dominate the race? I don’t know, I hope so, but I think it’s more present timing as to how your performance is more so than past history at a race track.”
Other notables in Sunday’s field include last week’s Talladega winner Joey Logano 18th, eleven time Dover winner Jimmie Johnson 19th and Bubba Wallace 26th.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series teams will have a pair of practice sessions on Saturday to dial their cars in for Sunday’s race.
