KANSAS CITY, Kan. — If Chris Buescher weren’t tired of Kyle Larson after last year’s record-close finish at Kansas Speedway, he certainly should be after Saturday’s qualifying session at the 1.5-mile track.
Running what he called “a perfect-feeling lap,” Larson — the last driver to make a run during time trials — knocked Buescher off the provisional pole for Sunday’s Advent Health 400 (3 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Larson scorched the intermediate speedway with a lap at 183.730 mph (29.391 seconds), beating Buescher (183.374 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.057 seconds. That was a much wider margin, relatively speaking, than the heartbreaking 0.001-second advantage Larson held over the Roush Fenway Keselowski driver at the end of last year’s spring race at Kansas.
The Busch Light Pole Award was Larson’s first of the season, his first at Kansas and the 22nd of his career. The pole is the 14th at Kansas for Chevrolet and the seventh this season for the auto maker.
“The qualifying lap felt really good,” Larson said. “You’re watching SMT (data), and you can see that drivers are starting to hold it easy wide open in (Turns) 1 and 2. In (Turns) 3 and 4, some guys were getting tight.
“Buescher was able to run a good 3 and 4. I kind of had a plan on the line I wanted to run and just try to match it with the throttle, and fortunately, everything went great. My balance felt really good, I felt like I hit my marks and came up to speed through 3 and 4 good, so it was a perfect-feeling lap.”
In last spring’s race, Larson surged forward at the finish to edge Buescher by less than 4 inches. That Buescher was again the victim of the speed in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was not lost on the pole winner.
“It’s definitely ironic and really cool,” Larson said. “I think it adds to the story line of what happened last year and probably builds anticipation for the race (on Sunday). I won’t be thinking about it, I guess, when we’re rolling around under caution, but, yeah, it’s ironic and funny and cool all at the same time.”
Christopher Bell (183.268 mph) was third-fastest in time trials, falling two positions short of his fourth straight Kansas Speedway pole.
Tyler Reddick qualified fourth at 183.150 mph, followed by last Sunday’s Texas winner Joey Logano at 182.871 mph.
Ty Gibbs, William Byron, Daniel Suarez, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney will start sixth through 10th, respectively.
Kyle Busch and Josh Berry both hit the outside wall during their qualifying laps and will start 35th and 38th in Sunday’s race.
–By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service. Special to Field Level Media.
