MARTINSVILLE, Va. — The Kyle Larson Redemption Tour continued Saturday at Martinsville Speedway.
Last year’s NASCAR Cup Series champion won the pole Saturday for Sunday’s Xfinity 500. It was his fourth pole this season and comes just six days after a convincing victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the Dixie Vodka 400.
Click here for qualifying results.
The driver for Hendrick Motorsports was a near certainty to make the Round of Eight earlier this month before disaster struck near the end of the October 9 Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway. Larson’s Chevrolet brushed the wall and broke a toe-link. By the time the issue was repaired, Larson was out of contention to advance, especially after Christopher Bell won the race.
Since then, Larson has driven like a champion and remains in contention to deliver the NASCAR Owner’s Championship to team owner Rick Hendrick in next Sunday’s championship race at Phoenix Raceway.
“My mindset hasn’t really changed at all, really,” Larson said. “I’m just grateful to still have the opportunity to race for an owner’s championship. Yeah, three more points would be good, but I honestly don’t lose any sleep about it. I’ve got one championship under my belt and going for another one these next couple of weeks. I feel like going for an owner’s title is really what’s important.”
Larson’s Chevrolet lapped the half-mile paperclip-shaped short oval at 96.078 miles per hour. That was faster than teammate Chase Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet at 96.019 mph. Chase Briscoe’s Ford was third, also at 96.019 mph, but Elliott gets the front row position based on higher points.
“I just tried to be smooth, keep traction the whole lap and it worked out,” Larson explained. “I tried to go a little bit harder the first lap than I did the round before. I kind of locked up, so I just kind of backed it down the second lap. I feel like a lot of times here, slower is faster, so I just tried to be smooth with it. I’m surprised I did anything good here at Martinsville (Speedway), so off to a good start so far.
“Hopefully we can keep it going tomorrow.”
Ryan Blaney’s Ford was fourth at 95.972 mph followed by Cole Custer’s Ford at 95.733 mph.
“That’s not bad,” Blaney said. “It’s a lot better starting spot than we were in the spring, so that’s good. I thought our race speed was pretty good, so it’s just a matter of staying in it all race. Like I said, starting decent and we just have to stay right for 500 laps.
“Pit selection is huge for multiple things. Just starting ahead of all this stuff and possible trouble, and also getting a good pit stall, so you just hope to have a good day on pit road and not make mistakes. You want to take advantage of what you’ve got and what you did here on Saturday to the most of your ability on Sunday.
““We’ll just see how it all shakes out.”
As far as the championship contenders, there is only one driver locked into the championship race. Joey Logano was the winner at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on October 16. He will start 12th.
Logano leads the driver points by five over Ross Chastain, 13 over Chase Elliott and 19 over William Byron. The four drivers below the cutline are Denny Hamlin, who is 24 out, Ryan Blaney, minus-37, Christopher Bell, minus-52, and Chase Briscoe, who is 63 points back.
“Briscoe is the furthest back and is a very aggressive driver,” Larson said. “I’m going to make sure I stay clear of him on the track.
“Hopefully, I’ll go out and lead all of the laps and win the race.”
Those drivers can still get in by winning Sunday’s race. But at least two of them will have to get in on points.
Byron starts 25th, Hamlin 11th, Blaney fifth, Bell 20th and Briscoe third.
Sunday’s race starts at 2 p.m. Eastern Time and will be televised on NBC.