NASCAR: Kyle Larson wins Cup pole in Phoenix

Championship 4 driver Kyle Larson will lead the field to the green flag for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series finale at Phoenix Raceway (3 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App/Peacock, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The entire Cup Series field took part in a single-car, two-lap qualifying session on Saturday evening at the 1-mile Arizona oval. Larson laid down a lap of 26.116 seconds at 137.847 miles per hour in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Fellow Championship 4 driver and teammate Chase Elliott will start on the outside front row with a lap of 26.289 seconds at 136.939 mph in the No. 9 Chevrolet.

“It was nice to go out second-to-last and have a benchmark to shoot for, ” Larson told NBC Sports after his pole-winning qualifying run. “… Really good to get a pole and help out pit stall selection, so that’s nice.  It’ll be good to go from pit stop No. 1. Really happy with our Hendrickcars.com Chevy. It was really weird having practice yesterday.  I think all of our confidence was probably less after it. So good to come here and get a pole and, you know, get the weekend started off on the right foot. Still a long day tomorrow and the track will go through a big change. It already looks different that what I’m familiar with. We’ll see how it goes.”

A monster lap for @KyleLarsonRacin, who puts it on the pole!

RETWEET if you think he’ll win his first @NASCAR championship tomorrow. #Championship4 pic.twitter.com/suDu28TBpe

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) November 6, 2021

The other two Championship 4 drivers, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr., will start a tad farther back for Sunday’s season finale. Hamlin will start sixth after a lap of 26.361 seconds at 136.565 mph in the No. 11 Toyota, while Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. will start from 12th after a lap of 26.494 seconds at 135.88 mph in the No. 19 Toyota.

The Championship 4 teams will pick pit stalls first for Sunday, followed by the order the rest of the field qualified afterward. Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron will start third, followed by Ryan Blaney and Kurt Busch.

Stewart-Haas Racing driver Cole Custer will start seventh, followed by Christopher Bell, Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano to round out the top 10.

The teams of Larson, Hamlin and Truex Jr. all had their car chiefs ejected after failing technical inspection twice prior to qualifying. All three Championship 4 drivers will still be able to start from the positions where they qualified. Elliott’s No. 9 passed on its first time though.

Qualifying Results