By Aaron Bearden, Motorsports Editor
JOLIET, Ill. — When the NASCAR XFINITY Series field roars to life for their annual trip to Chicagoland Speedway, it’ll be Kyle Larson that leads the field to green.
Larson laid down a 31.071-second lap in the final round of qualifying to claim the pole for Saturday’s Overton’s 300. The result was Larson’s fourth-career Xfinity Series pole, and his first of 2018.
“I’m actually pretty shocked that we’re this fast, because we were really bad yesterday.” Larson told NBCSN afterward. “I was really tight. Our ENEOS (Chevrolet) wouldn’t turn at all. We changed a bunch of stuff, and I’m not sure what they changed overnight but so far our ENEOS car is a lot better.
“I don’t know if it’ll be like that in the race, but it was nice to have to turn right a couple times where yesterday I didn’t even think about turning right.”
Tyler Reddick led the way for Xfinity regulars with a time of 31.135 seconds to secure second in the session. Austin Cindric followed in third, with Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regulars Daniel Suarez and Paul Menard rounding out the top five.
Brandon Jones, Matt Tifft, Elliott Sadler, Chase Elliott and Daniel Hemric completed the top 10.
Cole Custer was expected to make a run at the pole after qualifying for the final round, but he ended the final round without setting a time due to a flat right-front tire he sustained on the previous run. The Stewart-Haas Racing sophomore will have to roll off from the tail-end of the field after his team elected to change out the flat tire on his No. 00 Ford.
The first round passed without major surprised, but Round 2 of qualifying saw a few 2018 winners fail to advance. Kevin Harvick qualified 13th in the No. 98 Ford, while Justin Allgaier slotted in 18th.
Mike Harmon and Morgan Shepherd each failed to qualify for the 42-car field.
Coverage for the Overton’s 300 will begin on NBCSN at 3:30 p.m. ET.