Just nine points out of the Chase lead, Kyle Larson will start from the pole position in Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race, after a lightning delay forced cancellation of Friday’s qualifying session at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Having finished fifth in the Chase opener at Darlington Raceway before winning last Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway, Larson brings considerable momentum to the third race of the NASCAR Cup Series postseason (7:30 p.m. ET Saturday on USA Network, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“Always coming into here I feel confident,” said Larson, driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. “I do believe we can come here and have a good weekend. At Darlington, I felt like we were back to being ‘5-team-ish’ in a way. It had been so long since we were battling for a win… So that was fun.”
“To go to Gateway and put on a performance like we did, yeah, I felt like we were getting closer to where we want to be, but still have room to go, for sure—a lot of room to go to be dominant. But at least as far as team prep, execution and all the things it takes, I felt like these first two weeks have gone really strong.”
Chase drivers occupy the first five positions on the starting grid for the Night Race, with Joey Logano lining up next to Larson on the first row in a field set by the rule book (according to metrics) because of the cancellation.
Top seed and Chase leader Denny Hamlin will start third, as he tries to keep Larson at bay. William Byron lines up fourth, followed by Carson Hocevar. Non-Chase drivers Alex Bowman and Ross Chastain will start sixth and seventh, followed by Chase driver Austin Cindric.
Non-Chaser Austin Dillon starts ninth with Chase driver Bubba Wallace 10th on the grid.
Other Chase drivers start as follows: Christopher Bell 12th, Ty Gibbs 13th, Ryan Preece 16th, Tyler Reddick 20th, Chris Buescher 23rd, Chase Briscoe 26th, Chase Elliott 27th, Daniel Suarez 28th and Ryan Blaney 29th.
Bell is third in the Chase standings, 18 points behind Hamlin. Suarez is currently on baby watch for his first child, with NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series driver Justin Allgaier on standby for possible relief duties.
“Hopefully, the baby doesn’t come till Sunday or Monday,” Suarez said. “I think it’s going to come very soon though. Hopefully, it’s not tomorrow.”
— NASCAR Wire Service —
See the Bass Pro Shops Night Race Starting Lineup.
For complete race information, check out the Bristol race page.