LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – MARCH 05: Christopher Bell, driver of the No. 20 DeWalt Toyota, drives during qualifying for the NASCAR Series Pennzoil 400 Cup at Las Vegas Speedway on March 5, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Joe Gibbs driver Christopher Bell won his first pole position in the NASCAR Cup Series on Saturday and will lead Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 race presented by Jiffy Lube (3 pm ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The No. 20 Toyota JGR driver outperformed 10 cars qualifying for Stage 2 at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway at 182.673 mph.
Defensive race winner Kyle Larson put his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet off the front row after topping the speed chart earlier Saturday morning in practice. He was only 0.289 seconds behind Bell and was the only other rider to break the 182 mph mark in the session.
It’s pretty cool,” said Bell, who is the second driver (also Austin Sindrik at Auto Club Speedway) to take his first career pole position in 2022. “I am very pleased with our DeWalt Camry. I knew our first race (in training) would be pretty competitive.”
Asked if he was surprised by the pole win, Bell replied: “Not really. All season long, our Camrys had speed.”
Now the talented 27-year-old Oklahoma resident is hoping that speed will lead to a better finish. He was unlucky in the first two races of the season. He crashed in the Daytona 500 and finished 24th and had engine problems last weekend at the California Auto Club and finished 36th.
“You never know for sure, and nothing is guaranteed,” Bell said. “But we had a lot of speed and we had promises and hopefully we will start building them together.
Daytona 500 winner Sindrick, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe and Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliot rounded out the top five in qualifying. Syndrik’s Penkse teammate Joey Logano, Chevy driver Tyler Reddick, Bell’s teammate Denny Hamlin, Richard Childress Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Austin Dillon rounded out Sunday’s top ten bracket.
BACKUP PLANS
Las Vegas native and 2009 race winner Kyle Busch raised the yellow flag in less than 10 minutes of Saturday’s 35-minute workout. A tire blew out and his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota hit the wall hard. The car was towed to the garage with significant damage, and the crew pulled out a backup car for Busch to use in Sunday’s race.
The new car was all silver, with no paint scheme or number – it actually had Denny Hamlin’s name on the rear window – and was not ready for the qualifying run. So on Sunday, Bush will start at the bottom of the grid. The team stated that the car was originally sent to the West Coast Swing race to secure various spare parts.
LARSON AND ELLIOTT
Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Larson spoke to the media on Saturday morning and revealed that he had a positive encounter with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott after an incident on the track between the two last weekend in California.
With 11 laps to go, Larson was in the middle of turn one, overtaking Ford driver Joey Logano, who was driving down the lane. Larson said he didn’t see Elliot go up the strip at the same time, making it three widths. Larson swerved into Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet, which hit the wall and was damaged. Elliot continued, but eventually turned around and issued a final caution with nine laps to go, forcing Larson to beat the field in the subsequent restart with three laps remaining.
“I talked to him and we sort of discussed what happened from each of our points of view,” Larson said after qualifying. “Everything went well, to be honest, better than I expected. He’s a great teammate.”
Their private conversation comes after a mid-week conversation with longtime team owner Rick Hendrick, who has experience in settling disputes between his talented rider rosters. Ten years ago, he was fixing fences with his other pair of champion riders, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.
“Rick (Hendrik) called a meeting with all four teams and sort of confirmed his expectations for us riders,” Larson said. “It’s good to get reminders like this from time to time and continue to race well with each other in the future. I’ll talk to Chase (Elliott) for a bit and we’ll be fine.”
“I hope nothing like this happens again.”
Last week after the race, Larson’s supervisor, Tyler Monn, took to social media, saying it was his fault not to tell Larson that Elliot was out of him.
“I was more worried about 22 (Logano) than 9 (Elliott). It was a late call and had nothing to do with Kyle (Larson),” Monn tweeted.
— NASCAR wire service —