DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Old car or new, Hendrick Motorsports continued its mastery of qualifying for the front row of the Daytona 500 Wednesday night.
This time, it was Kyle Larson that was the fastest of the fast, winning the pole for Sunday’s 64th Daytona 500 during qualifications at Daytona International Speedway.
Larson’s pole in the new Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro was 181.859 mph, the slowest pole speed for the Daytona 500 since Curtis Turner in 1966 at 180.831 mph.
But that’s all relative as the Next Gen rules and car package were designed to slow down the cars on the high-banked superspeedway. It’s about tight racing and the times from top to bottom were very tight.
It was the 10th straight year Chevrolet has won the Daytona 500 pole.
Larson, who won last year’s NASCAR Cup Series championship, believed he had little to do with winning the pole. In his mind, all of the credit goes to the crew back at the Hendrick Motorsports shop.
“Anytime you are really proud of your team to get a pole here because this is the littlest it has to do with us drivers; qualifying at superspeedways,” Larson said. “Just a huge thank you to the engine shop at Hendrick Motorsports. Everybody who’s had a part in touching these vehicles; whether it be on the computer, engineering, or just hands on. It’s really neat; just awesome the speed in our Hendrick Cars (dot com) Chevy. Hopefully this is the beginning of a really good weekend.”
Teammate Alex Bowman was the second fastest, making it a Hendrick sweep of the front row.
Bowman is the only driver in NASCAR Cup Series history to start on the Daytona 500 front row for five consecutive seasons (2018-2022).
“It just says so much about Hendrick Motorsports and all these guys,” Bowman said. “Congrats to the 5 (Larson) on getting the pole. It’s cool to have the record, but I feel like Greg Ives (Crew Chief) and my race team should be the ones that get the credit for that record. The driver doesn’t really have much to do with it, but glad I didn’t mess it up for them and really happy for Ally and Chevrolet. Cool to be a part of it.”
Hendrick Motorsports swept the top three positions with William Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet third at 180.85.
Aric Almirola kept Hendrick Motorsports from sweeping the top four positions. Almirola qualified fourth with a fast lap at 180.527 mph, which was faster than Hendrick driver Chase Elliott’s lap at 180.314 mph in the No. 9 Chevrolet.
Positions 6-10 were, in order, Martin Truex Jr.’s Toyota, Ross Chastain’s Chevrolet, Denny Hamlin’s Toyota, Daniel Suarez’s Chevrolet and Harrison Burton’s Ford.
Larson and Bowman are the only drivers locked into their starting positions. The remainder of the field will be determined through Thursday night’s qualifying races.
When asked if the Daytona 500 pole was a continuation of his championship season last year, Larson once again said all the credit goes to the team.
“I had very little to do with this except keep the car out of trouble,” he said. “This one really goes to the crew.”