Kyle Larson is opening the 2022 NASCAR season the same way he finished the last one: out front.
Larson, the defending Cup Series champion, raced his way to the top of the leaderboard during NASCAR’s Daytona 500 qualifying session on Wednesday night. He’ll start Sunday’s race on the pole.
NASCAR held two qualifying rounds this year to determine the front row for the main race. Larson posted a best speed of 181.159 mph and time of 49.680 seconds, and will line up alongside his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Alex Bowman, who secured his record fifth consecutive Daytona 500 front row starting spot with a speed of 181.046 mph and time of 49.711 seconds.
In addition to Larson and Bowman, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Aric Almirola, Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr., Harrison Burton, Denny Hamlin and Daniel Suárez advanced to the second qualifying round with top-10 times in the first round.
“It just shows the workmanship, the craftsmanship back at the shop to give us the really fast cars that we need,” Byron, one of the four Hendrick Motorsports drivers vying for the pole, said mid-qualifying.
Hendrick Motorsports leads the series in Daytona 500 poles with 15, and its drivers have won the position in seven of the past eight years. Bowman claimed last year’s Daytona 500 pole through qualifying.
“Qualifying doesn’t mean much as far as chasing a championship,” Larson said. “So I think it starts Sunday night, during the race and the results from that, but it shows that our race team did their homework this offseason. All four of the Hendrick teams were able to study and prepare well for this race.”
“I think it gives (us) confidence even for the racetracks that are not Daytona because we have a lot of speed here, so I would think that we could carry some speed into the other races,” Larson continued.
NASCAR recently updated its Daytona 500 qualifying procedures, adding a second round to set the front row for the main race. The top-10 finishers from the first round advanced to a second round, and drivers with the fastest time in the second round scored the top two starting positions for the 500.
The remaining cars will run in a Duel race on Thursday night to determine how they line up on Sunday. The updated qualifying format will be used at superspeedway races at Daytona and Talladega throughout the Cup season.
Jacques Villeneuve and Noah Gragson each secured their place in the Daytona 500 for the first time by posting the best times and speeds of the open entrants.
Top-10 Daytona 500 qualifying times
