Yahoo Autos Larson, Elliott lock out all-Hendrick front row at Richmond
Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott delivered a Hendrick Motorsports front row in qualifying at Richmond Raceway.
Larson, the defending race winner, earned the pole with a lap of 120.332mph (22.438s). It’s his second pole at Richmond Raceway.
“It definitely helps for sure,” Larson said of going into Sunday’s race. “The number one pit stall here means a lot, so yeah, happy. Happy to do that. Happy to be in Group A, for sure. And then the sun coming out a little bit there helps also. Chase got real close there, so I was a bit nervous but awesome day for Hendrick Motorsports, the HendrickCars.com Chevrolet [and] everybody involved. It’s good to get another pole. We’ll see if it translates to tomorrow’s race.”
It was Larson’s 17th Cup Series pole.
Elliott qualified second at 120.321mph. The 2020 series champion has never won at Richmond Raceway in 15 previous starts and his best finish is second in 2018.
Ross Chastain qualified third (120.059mph), Alex Bowman, fourth (119.861mph) and Bubba Wallace, fifth (119.819mph). Bowman scrapped the frontstretch wall during his lap.
Todd Gilliland qualified sixth (119.760mph), Martin Truex Jr., seventh (119.585mph), Ty Gibbs, eighth (119.517mph), Austin Cindric, ninth (119.111mph) and Joey Logano, 10th (119.069mph).
Denny Hamlin qualified 11th, Ryan Blaney, 12th, William Byron, 13th, Chris Buescher, 14th and Kyle Busch, 15th. Tyler Reddick qualified 19th.
Further back in the field, Brad Keselowski only managed 23rd. Christopher Bell qualified 29th and Josh Berry, 30th. In this race a year ago, Berry finished second substituting for Elliott.
NEXT: Toyota Owners 400 at 7 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX.
