DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Hendrick Motorsports continued its domination of Daytona 500 qualifying as Kyle Larson was the fastest driver Wednesday night at Daytona Int’l Speedway.
It wasn’t a matter of if a Hendrick driver would win the pole, it was a matter of who that driver would be.
It was defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Larson who won his first Daytona 500 pole with a fast lap at 181.159 mph. Alex Bowman was second at 181.046 mph in the No. 48 Chevrolet as he starts on the front row for the fifth consecutive year.
“It’s really neat,” Larson said. “Anytime you are really proud of your team to get a pole here cause this is the littlest it has to do with us drivers, qualifying at superspeedways. 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 HendrickCars.com Chevy. Hopefully this is the beginning of a really good weekend.”
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, that was faster than Hendrick driver Chase Elliott’s lap at 180.314 mph in the No. 9 Chevrolet.
Positions six through 10 were Martin Truex Jr.’s Toyota, Ross Chastain’s Chevrolet, Denny Hamlin’s Toyota, Daniel Suarez’s Chevrolet and Harrison Burton’s Wood Brothers Racing Ford.
Suarez was the first driver to take the track in the final round of 10 drivers. He completed his lap at 179.619 mph. But with the four Hendrick drivers as the last four to make a qualification attempt, the drama was if they would sweep the top four.
But Elliott’s lap at 180.314 mph was a tick slower than Aric Almirola’s 180.527 mph, as he broke up the Hendrick Motorsports quartet.
Noah Gragson and Jacques Villeneuve locked themselves into the starting lineup of the Daytona 500 based on posting the top two times among drivers without the benefit of a charter.
Villeneuve is the 1995 Indianapolis 500 winner, 1995 CART champion and 1997 Formula One champion.
Those drivers earned their way into the lineup through the first round, when all 42 cars took single laps around the 2.5-mile speedway.
At the end of that session, Byron was the fastest in the No. 24 Chevrolet with a lap at 180.850. Hendrick Motorsports teammate and Larson was next in the No. 5 Chevrolet ahead of the other two Hendrick cars including Bowman in the No. 48 at 180.469 mph and Elliott in the No. 9 at 180.263 mph.
Almirola, Chastain, Burton, Hamlin and Suarez rounded out the top 10 in the first round.
Those 10 drivers advanced into the final round that determined the front row and helped set the lineup for Thursday night’s two Bluegreen Vacation Duels.
The results of Duel No. 1 fills out the inside of each row with the order of finish in Duel No. 2 filling out the outside of the rows.
The highest-finishing Open car in each Duel will advance into the Daytona 500.
Although it was a very tight spread from first through the remainder of the 42 cars, the pole speed of 181.169 mph was the slowest since 1967 when Curtis Turner won the pole at 180.831 mph.