{"id":45235,"date":"2024-04-06T18:30:51","date_gmt":"2024-04-06T23:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=45235"},"modified":"2024-04-09T20:42:23","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T01:42:23","slug":"kyle-larson-edges-nemesis-bubba-wallace-for-martinsville-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/06\/kyle-larson-edges-nemesis-bubba-wallace-for-martinsville-pole\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Larson edges nemesis Bubba Wallace for Martinsville pole"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Reid Spencer<\/em><\/p>\n

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

MARTINSVILLE, Va.\u2014Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace renewed their rivalry on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway\u2014without contact between their cars.<\/p>\n

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Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Ruby Chevrolet, poses for photos after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway on April 06, 2024 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by James Gilbert\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Six days after Wallace turned Larson with fewer than two laps left to cause the final caution at Richmond and take a likely win from Martin Truex Jr., Larson edged Wallace for the pole position for Sunday\u2019s Cook Out 400 (3 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

With Hendrick Motorsports celebrating its 40th anniversary this weekend with special paint schemes, Larson\u2014the last driver to make a qualifying run in the final round\u2014scorched the 0.526-mile short track with a lap at 96.034 mph (19.718 seconds) to edge Wallace (96.029 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.001 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf all people, it would be Larson\u2014by a thousandth,\u201d Wallace said after Larson\u2019s lap flashed onto the scoreboard.<\/p>\n

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Bubba Wallace, driver of the #23 McDonald’s Toyota, congratulates Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Ruby Chevrolet, after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway on April 06, 2024 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Though Larson was part and parcel of the final caution at Richmond, he rallied to finish third in overtime, while a slow final pit stop relegated Wallace to 13th.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast week was pretty sweet revenge, us finishing third and him having a rough pit stop,\u201d Larson said with a smile.<\/p>\n

The pole on Saturday, however, was a something of a surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, a bit unexpected,\u201d said Larson, who earned his second straight Busch Light Pole Award this season, his second at Martinsville and the 18th of his career. “I knew we\u2019d be good, but that second lap (in the final round) didn\u2019t feel that good. It was just enough, though. Really cool to get this 40th anniversary Hendrick Camaro on the pole.<\/p>\n

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Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Ruby Chevrolet, signs the Busch Light Pole Award backdrop after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway on April 06, 2024 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by James Gilbert\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt seems like all four Hendrick cars are really good, too, so hopefully it\u2019s a good day for the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larson\u2019s teammate, Chase Elliott, qualified third at 95.869 mph, with Alex Bowman taking the 10th starting spot. William Byron failed to make the final round and will take the green flag in 18th.<\/p>\n

Truex (95.864 mph) claimed the fourth spot on the grid, followed by Ford drivers Chase Briscoe, Joey Logano and Josh Berry. Last week\u2019s Richmond winner, Denny Hamlin, reigning series champion Ryan Blaney and Bowman will start eighth through 10th, respectively.<\/p>\n

Note: Team owner Rick Hendrick had planned to drive the pace car on Sunday as part of the 40th anniversary celebration, but knee replacement surgery intervened, preventing Hendrick from attending the race.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va.\u2014Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace renewed their rivalry on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway\u2014without contact between their cars. Six days after Wallace turned Larson with fewer than two laps left to cause the final caution at Richmond and take a likely win from Martin Truex Jr., Larson edged Wallace […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":45217,"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":[225,407,16],"class_list":["post-45235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-kyle-larson","tag-martinsville-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GettyImages-2144373579-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-bLB","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45235","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=45235"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45238,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45235\/revisions\/45238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}