{"id":19675,"date":"2018-06-23T15:46:08","date_gmt":"2018-06-23T20:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=19675"},"modified":"2018-06-26T12:57:05","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T17:57:05","slug":"kyle-larson-leads-chevrolet-onslaught-in-sonoma-qualifying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/06\/23\/kyle-larson-leads-chevrolet-onslaught-in-sonoma-qualifying\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Larson leads Chevrolet onslaught in Sonoma qualifying"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

SONOMA, Calif. \u2013 Take the aerodynamic factor away and the new Chevrolets are just fine, as Kyle Larson<\/strong> proved Saturday in his pole-winning run at Sonoma Raceway<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kyle Larson, driver of the #42 DC Solar Chevrolet, poses for a photo after winning the pole award during qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Toyota\/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on June 23, 2018 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Larson negotiated the 1.99-mile road course in 75.732 seconds (94.597 mph) \u2013 the fastest lap of the day \u2013 to earn top starting spot in Sunday\u2019s Toyota Save Mart 350 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The Busch Pole Award was the California native\u2019s second of the season, his second at Sonoma and the sixth of his career.<\/p>\n

Driving the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Camaro ZL1, Larson edged reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> champion Martin Truex Jr. (94.227 mph) by .09 seconds. Truex will take the green flag from the front row for the fifth time in 16 races this season, having won three poles and having started first at Martinsville after a qualifying rainout.<\/p>\n

Road course ace AJ Allmendinger was fastest in the first of two rounds at 94.477 mph (75.828 seconds), but Larson made a huge gain in the money round.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really good second lap there,\u201d Larson acknowledged. \u201cI figured I had run in the 75-second bracket. I just didn\u2019t know how quickly, so when I saw the (75.732) pop up on my dash, I knew would be a good lap, but I didn\u2019t know if it was the pole or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I knew I was ahead of the 78 (Truex), I figured the 47 (Allmendinger) was the only one that could beat me. I\u2019m not sure where he messed up his lap, but he wasn\u2019t able to get the pole (Allmendinger qualified fifth).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kyle Larson, driver of the #42 DC Solar Chevrolet, drives during qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Toyota\/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on June 23, 2018 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt was cool to do it. We picked up a lot of time from the first round into the second round. The car had really good balance in the first round, so I don\u2019t know what adjustments (the team made), if anything, but I was just able to attack the braking zones a little bit more and rush the throttle a little bit more on the exits, and it paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chase Elliott qualified third, followed by Jamie McMurray, Larson\u2019s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, as Chevrolet drivers claimed six of the top eight starting positions. Truex had the fastest Toyota, and sixth-place qualifier Kevin Harvick the quickest Ford.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good lap,\u201d Harvick said. \u201cMy Ford is a little better than me when it comes to this day. I was a little too conservative in a couple corners and gave up a little time, but it was a solid two rounds for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hardest thing to do is make it out of Round 1. After you do that, we went faster than we did in practice in Round 1 and faster again in Round 2. That\u2019s always a good thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hendrick Motorsports, which supplies the engines for Ganassi, placed three drivers in the top eight, with Elliott, Jimmie Johnson (seventh) and Sunoco rookie William Byron (eighth) all earning spots in the first four rows.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s starting spot is his best of the season so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe car since we unloaded has been very competitive and good,\u201d said the seven-time series champion. \u201cI got two clean laps. I can\u2019t say that I really gave away any time out there, which is tough to do on a tight little road course like this. A top 10 starting spot \u2013 we will take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Series leader Kyle Busch qualified ninth.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur qualifying run was okay,\u201d Busch said. \u201cFor some reason, we\u2019ve kind of been lacking here this weekend. We haven\u2019t been able to find that fast lap. We keep trying to work on the car and on the driver and have certainly made improvements to both, just not enough of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cQualified ninth, that\u2019s OK. Certainly, we\u2019d like to be more in the top five spots, but it\u2019s kind of what we got, so it\u2019s what we\u2019ll have for tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Media Center Interviews:<\/h3>\n

Kyle Larson – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/SR_MENCS_Larson_062318.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Martin Truex Jr. – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/SR_MENCS_Truex_062318.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying – Toyota \/ Save Mart 350<\/b><\/p>\n

Sonoma Raceway<\/b><\/p>\n

Sonoma, California<\/b><\/p>\n

Saturday, June 23, 2018<\/b><\/p>\n

               1. (42)  Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 94.597 mph.<\/p>\n

               2. (78)  Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 94.484 mph.<\/p>\n

               3. (9)  Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 94.461 mph.<\/p>\n

               4. (1)  Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 94.227 mph.<\/p>\n

               5. (47)  AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 93.925 mph.<\/p>\n

               6. (4)  Kevin Harvick, Ford, 93.856 mph.<\/p>\n

               7. (48)  Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 93.824 mph.<\/p>\n

               8. (24)  William Byron #, Chevrolet, 93.756 mph.<\/p>\n

               9. (18)  Kyle Busch, Toyota, 93.679 mph.<\/p>\n

               10. (2)  Brad Keselowski, Ford, 93.409 mph.<\/p>\n

               11. (12)  Ryan Blaney, Ford, 93.354 mph.<\/p>\n

               12. (22)  Joey Logano, Ford, 92.309 mph.<\/p>\n

               13. (6)  Trevor Bayne, Ford, 93.455 mph.<\/p>\n

               14. (31)  Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 93.454 mph.<\/p>\n

               15. (21)  Paul Menard, Ford, 93.438 mph.<\/p>\n

               16. (19)  Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 93.372 mph.<\/p>\n

               17. (88)  Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 93.267 mph.<\/p>\n

               18. (17)  Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 93.265 mph.<\/p>\n

               19. (14)  Clint Bowyer, Ford, 93.252 mph.<\/p>\n

               20. (20)  Erik Jones, Toyota, 93.241 mph.<\/p>\n

               21. (11)  Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 93.190 mph.<\/p>\n

               22. (34)  Michael McDowell, Ford, 93.126 mph.<\/p>\n

               23. (41)  Kurt Busch, Ford, 93.114 mph.<\/p>\n

               24. (10)  Aric Almirola, Ford, 93.066 mph.<\/p>\n

               25. (37)  Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 93.024 mph.<\/p>\n

               26. (95)  Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 93.017 mph.<\/p>\n

               27. (3)  Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 92.930 mph.<\/p>\n

               28. (38)  David Ragan, Ford, 92.490 mph.<\/p>\n

               29. (23)  Gray Gaulding, Toyota, 92.396 mph.<\/p>\n

               30. (32)  Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 92.290 mph.<\/p>\n

               31. (13)  Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 92.244 mph.<\/p>\n

               32. (72)  Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 92.145 mph.<\/p>\n

               33. (15)  Justin Marks(i), Chevrolet, 91.961 mph.<\/p>\n

               34. (96)  Parker Kligerman(i), Toyota, 91.522 mph.<\/p>\n

               35. (43)  Bubba Wallace #, Chevrolet, 91.179 mph.<\/p>\n

               36. (51)  Chris Cook, Ford, 90.536 mph.<\/p>\n

               37. (00)  Tomy Drissi, Chevrolet, 89.858 mph.<\/p>\n

               38. (52)  Cody Ware, Chevrolet, 89.220 mph.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SONOMA, Calif. \u2013 Take the aerodynamic factor away and the new Chevrolets are just fine, as Kyle Larson proved Saturday in his pole-winning run at Sonoma Raceway. Larson negotiated the 1.99-mile road course in 75.732 seconds (94.597 mph) \u2013 the fastest lap of the day \u2013 to earn top starting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19679,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[225,16,455,618],"class_list":["post-19675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-kyle-larson","tag-nascar","tag-sonoma-raceway","tag-toyota-savemart-350"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/356381.jpg?fit=1454%2C969","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-57l","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19675"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19684,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19675\/revisions\/19684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}