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Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson took his first pole position of his 2024 NASCAR Cup Series campaign at Richmond Raceway. Larson will lead the pack to the green flag for the Toyota Owners 400 this Sunday, March 31.
Larson took his 17th career pole position in the Cup Series, topping the charts with a lap time of 22.438s around the 0.75 mile oval. His teammate Chase Elliott locked out the front row, with a lap time of 22.440s. The all Hendrick Motorsports front row will kick off the 400 lap race on Sunday.
Ross Chastain and Alex Bowman will share the second row, with 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace starting in third, as the fastest Toyota driver. He is joined by Todd Gilliland, who was the fastest Ford driver in the qualifying session.
Martin Truex Jr. was the quickest Joe Gibbs Racing driver. He lines up in the fourth row beside Ty Gibbs. Penske teammates Joey Logano and Austin Cindric round up the top-10 qualifiers for the race. Betting favorites Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell qualified 11th and 29th, respectively.
William Byron, coming on the back of his second win of the season at COTA, was the slowest Hendrick Motorsports driver and lines up 13th on the grid. Byron dominated the spring race at Richmond last year. However, a late race spin allowed Kyle Larson to take the checkered flag.
Larson, too, had mixed results at the track last year, recording a win and a 19th-place result in the fall race. This weekend, however, he topped the charts in the practice session and replicated the pace in qualifying, and will be aiming for his second win of the season this Sunday.
The Toyota Owners 400 night race is scheduled for March 31, at 7:00 PM ET. You can catch the 400 lap race live on Fox Sports, MRN and SiriusXM Radio.
Kyle Larson elaborates on his past results at Richmond Raceway
The #5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy driver has one race win and two top five finishes in his last six outings at Richmond Raceway, with a 10.5 average finishing position.
Ahead of the weekend, Kyle Larson conceded that he never arrived at Richmond with high expectations. Contrasting his previous years results, the 2021 NASCAR Cup champion said that the team has arrived with a completely different setup.
He said (via Speedwaydigest.com):
"Talking to my team and stuff - we won the spring race, but we were really bad in the fall race. So I think we've come here with a much different approach for car setup."
The different setup direction seemed to have paid off, as Larson was the quickest in the practice and qualifying sessions. His long run average (10 laps) ranked fifth in the practice session.
