For the first time this season, Kyle Larson will start on pole at Virginia’s Richmond Raceway.
Larson wheeled his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to a fastest speed of 120.332 mph, edging teammate Chase Elliott by 0.02 seconds.
“Well it helps the confidence, for sure. So yeah, I mean practice went well and qualifying went good. I’m not expecting to win, but I think we have a No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy capable of contending,” Larson said. “We have a pit stall to go along with it now, which helps. Just need to execute a good race and see where the results end up.”
Chevrolet continued their dominance in the top five with Ross Chastain and Alex Bowman in tow.
Bubba Wallace was the first Toyota driver with a fifth-place qualifying effort. Todd Gilliland led the Ford brigade in sixth, while Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Ty Gibbs slotted in seventh and eighth.
“It was a solid day, but we still need to keep working on a bunch of stuff, especially kind of longer runs because everyone gets to a point where they’re not comfortable,” Gilliland said. “We made good adjustments, improved our starting spot, into the second round, I thought all of that stuff – definitely multiple positives to take from today.”
Team Penske’s Austin Cindric and Joey Logano completed the top 10.