{"id":45144,"date":"2024-03-30T12:45:45","date_gmt":"2024-03-30T17:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=45144"},"modified":"2024-04-09T10:04:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T15:04:00","slug":"larson-bests-elliott-for-richmond-cup-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/30\/larson-bests-elliott-for-richmond-cup-pole\/","title":{"rendered":"Larson bests Elliott for Richmond Cup pole"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain<\/em><\/p>\n

NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Kyle Larson claimed his first pole position of the 2024 season Saturday afternoon to lead an all Hendrick Motorsports front row for Sunday\u2019s Toyota Owner\u2019s 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway (7 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, poses for photos after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway on March 30, 2024 in Richmond, Virginia. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Larson\u2019s time of 22.438-seconds (120.332 mph) just bettered his teammate Chase Elliott\u2019s mark of 22.440-seconds (120.321) around the three-quarter mile Richmond oval \u2013 good enough to earn the 2021 series champion and defending Richmond race winner the 17th pole position of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely helps for sure,” Larson said of his effort. \u201cHaving the number one pit stall here means a lot. So happy to do that. Happy to be in Group A for sure and then the sun coming out a little bit there helps.<\/p>\n

\u201cChase got real close there so I was a bit nervous. Awesome day for Hendrick Motorsports. \u2026 Good to be on the pole. We\u2019ll see if it translates in tomorrow\u2019s race.”<\/p>\n

Trackhouse Racing\u2019s Ross Chastain will start third followed by Hendrick driver Alex Bowman and 23XI Racing\u2019s Bubba Wallace.<\/p>\n

Front Row Motorsports\u2019 Todd Gilliland, Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Ty Gibbs, and Team Penske teammates Austin Cindric and Joey Logano rounded out the top qualifiers at Richmond.<\/p>\n

Logano\u2019s No. 22 Team Penske Ford had been fastest in Group A during first round qualifying, as had Elliott, whose 22.114-second 122.095 mph was quickest overall in the opening round.<\/p>\n

Of note, Denny Hamlin just missed advancing to second round qualifying and the four-time Richmond winner will start 11th in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Team Penske\u2019s Ryan Blaney, who posted the fastest 30-lap average speed in practice, will start 12th.<\/p>\n

Last week\u2019s winner at the Circuit of The Americas road course, Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 William Byron will roll off 13th. He is the first multi-race winner of the season, with victories in the Daytona 500 and COTA. He\u2019ll start alongside the summer Richmond race winner, RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher.<\/p>\n

Richard Childress Racing driver Kyle Busch, who leads all active drivers with six Richmond victories, will roll off 15th.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Parker Retzlaff, driver of the #31 FUNKAWAY Chevrolet, poses for photos after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Xfinity Series ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond Raceway on March 30, 2024 in Richmond, Virginia. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

ANOTHER FIRST TIME POLESITTER<\/b><\/p>\n

The NASCAR Xfinity Series had another first-time pole-winner this season with Jordan Anderson Racing\u2019s Parker Retzlaff, a 20-year old Wisconsin native, claiming the top starting position in the No. 31 Chevrolet for Saturday afternoon\u2019s ToyotaCare 250 (1:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels great,” said Retzlaff, noting, \u201cThis is where I made my first start two years ago so kind of feels full circle.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain NASCAR Wire Service Kyle Larson claimed his first pole position of the 2024 season Saturday afternoon to lead an all Hendrick Motorsports front row for Sunday\u2019s Toyota Owner\u2019s 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway (7 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Larson\u2019s time of 22.438-seconds (120.332 mph) just bettered his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":45150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,486],"class_list":["post-45144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-richmond-raceway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GettyImages-2125308376-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1710&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-bK8","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45144"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45160,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45144\/revisions\/45160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}