By Aaron Bearden, Motorsports Editor
Kyle Larson kept up his streak of strong qualifying runs at Sonoma Raceway with his second-consecutive Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series pole on the California road course.
The Chip Ganassi Racing ace laid down a 75.732-second lap to secure the pole for Sunday’s Toyota/Save-Mart 350. The result was Larson’s sixth-career pole, and marked his fifth top-five qualifying performance at Sonoma in as many tries.
Afterward the Californian shifted focus to securing a similar finish in the race itself.
“I can always qualify good here for some reason, but racing seems to be a struggle, for whatever reason,” Larson said. “I smoke the tires off it.
“I’ve been working hard to get better each and every year. I spent some time in the simulator and feel like I learned some things there. I thought we had a good practice yesterday and the last run was pretty decent. So, it would be nice to get a win here.”
Larson’s pole run capped off a strong overall performance from Chevrolet teams in the session. The manufacturer claimed six of the top eight starting positions for Sunday’s race, with only Martin Truex Jr. (second) in a Toyota and Kevin Harvick (sixth) in a Ford to split the bowtie brigade up.
Chase Elliott slotted in third, with Jamie McMurray and A.J. Allmendinger completing the top five. The effort was critical for Allmendinger, who considers the regular season’s two road courses to be his best chance at snagging a Cup win and a playoff berth.
“Being in the first three rows is important here,” he said. “We got that. After that first run I thought maybe we had a chance at pole, but Kyle (Larson) put in a hell of a lap. So, a little disappointed with that, but I think the car is driving really well.
“I think we are more competitive than we were last year here, so I think we are in for a decent day tomorrow and just try to hit everything and make sure that we put a solid day in for sure.”
Jimmie Johnson ended the session in seventh, with William Byron following along in eighth to secure his career-best starting position.
Rounding out the top 10 were 2015 winner Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski.
The session didn’t com without controversy. Issues during the preceding K&N Pro Series West qualifying session forced NASCAR officials to lay down oil dry. The material wasn’t scrubbed off of the track before Cup qualifying, leading to what amounted to a game of chicken as teams waited until the late moments of the session’s first round in order to minimize the amount of oil dry they’d have to navigate through.
There were no significant crashes, but the mass-exodus from pit road in the final 10 minutes led to a chaotic ending to the opening round. Teams bounced off of curbs with reckless abandon and risked making a trip off-track.
“It didn’t affect me, it affected the way the qualifying session went, without a question,” Truex said. “You could see that nobody wanted to be the first on the track. You could see that the guys that went out early were really slow.”
Denny Hamlin echoed Truex’s thoughts after a disappointing 21st-place qualifying effort.
“Track was dirty there,” he said. “No one wanted to be the first one out there to give it a try. Definitely disappointed with our effort, should be a lot faster than that. Our car is a lot better in race trim.”
Coverage for Sunday’s race is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.
Toyota/Save Mart 350 Starting Lineup
- Kyle Larson
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Chase Elliott
- Jamie McMurray
- A.J. Allmendinger
- Kevin Harvick
- Jimmie Johnson
- William Byron
- Kyle Busch
- Brad Keselowski
- Ryan Blaney
- Joey Logano
- Trevor Bayne
- Ryan Newman
- Paul Menard
- Daniel Suarez
- Alex Bowman
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Clint Bowyer
- Erik Jones
- Denny Hamlin
- Michael McDowell
- Kurt Busch
- A.J. Allmendinger
- Chris Buescher
- Kasey Kahne
- Austin Dillon
- David Ragan
- Gray Gaulding
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Ty Dillon
- Cole Whitt
- Justin Marks
- Parker Kligerman
- Darrell Wallace Jr.
- Chris Cook
- Tomy Drissi
- Cody Ware