Qualifying report

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Kyle Larson captures Fontana pole

Kyle Larson earned the pole for Sunday’s Auto Club 400.

Lee Spencer

Edited: Mar 25, 2017, 12:39 AM

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Kyle Larson, Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet

After setting the quick pace in practice, Larson kept the No. 42 Chevy atop the leader board in qualifying with a lap of 187.047mph on Friday for the second pole of his Monster Energy Cup career.

"I felt like I messed up there in (Turns) 1 and 2 and I got a little bit loose off the wall on entry and it got me to split the seam in (Turns) 1 and 2, but I was able to get committed to wide-open pretty good off of (Turn) 2 and then, yeah, I hadn’t run up high in (Turns) 3 and 4 at all in practice or qualifying here,” Larson said. "Didn’t really know what I would have when I got there, but ran a good ways and it stuck. Really happy though, our Target team has been amazing to start the season and to get a pole is great. I haven’t gotten a pole since my rookie season. Yeah, this is awesome. I can’t say enough about everybody at our race shop for all the hard work they have been putting in. Got a little team dinner tonight, so this will be a good way to celebrate.”

Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., and Ryan Newman posted the top-five speeds in final session.

Kenseth was the first car to take a lap in the final round and posted a lap of 186.037mph, but had to settle for sixth. Kevin Harvick, Jamie McMurray, Kyle Busch, Daniel Suarez, Austin Dillon and Kasey Kahne rounded out the top 12.

Jimmie Johnson, who wrecked in first practice, decided to watch qualifying from the sidelines. Crew chief Chad Knaus felt it was in the No. 48 team’s best interest to concentrate on Saturday’s practices and the race. Johnson has six wins on the two-mile track.

“We had a tough practice session and mid-pack was probably going to be our goal anyway,” said Johnson. “So, to take our lumps here, at a track that’s really wide with a lot of lanes, a long race; we’ll just take our lumps and get the car right where we can take advantage of the precious minutes that we have in Saturday’s practice session and go from there.

“Pit road is going to be a problem. We’re not going to have a great pick there. We’re definitely not in a position we want to be in, so we’d rather take the time now and make sure we get everything right and get this car right; and also kind of control our risk factor. If I was to tear this car up again in qualifying, we’d be heading next door to the No. 88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr., for example) to pull out their back up car. Put a wrap on it. Change the seat and interior and a lot of other things. So, we just felt like it would be best to get everything right and just get prepared for tomorrow and start at the tail end. I think my record shows that I can make up plenty of spots and pass plenty of cars and we’ll just make it exciting coming from the back.”

Johnson last missed qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway two years ago. He started 37th and won the race.

Round 2

Denny Hamlin posted the fastest lap in the second round of qualifying for Sunday’s Auto Club 400.

Hamlin, who holds the track qualifying record of 188.511mph (2016), was the ninth driver to post a time — 38.519-seconds (186.921mph).

Kevin Harvick (186.775mph) was second-quick followed by Matt Kenseth (186.674), Jamie McMurray (186.393mph), Kyle Busch (186.200mph) and Kyle Larson (186.148mph).

Daniel Suarez, Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski, Austin Dillon, Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman rounded out the top-12 drivers to advance to the final round.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. posted the 18th-fastest lap, but believes the No. 88 Chevy is faster than his time showed.

“We would have liked to go back out and ran a little faster but we couldn’t afford to put another lap on these tires,” Earnhardt said. “These are the tires we start the race on.”

Keselowski and Paul Menard both scraped the wall during their qualifying laps.

Round 1

Kevin Harvick topped the first round of time trials at Auto Club Speedway on Friday with a lap of 188.260mph.

Brad Keselowski (187.237mph) was second followed by Kyle Busch (187.076mph), Kyle Larson (186.766mph) Denny Hamlin (186.761mph)and Matt Kenseth (186.306mph).

Phoenix winner Ryan Newman posted the seventh-fastest time with Martin Truex Jr., Kasey Kahne, Jamie McMurray, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Clint Bowyer rounding out the top 12 speeds.

Thirty-four of 39 cars qualified for the Auto Club 400 on Friday. More than a dozen cars were still attempting to pass inspection when the green flag

Twelve cars remained in the inspection after the first five minutes of qualifying. At the end of the first round (20 minutes), five cars remained in the garage — four that failed to pass qualifying including Joey Logano and Trevor Bayne — as well as Johnson, who elected to forego time trials.

Cla#DriverManufacturerTimeGapMph 1 42 united_states Kyle Larson Chevrolet 38.493 187.047 2 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 38.507 0.014 186.979 3 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 38.606 0.113 186.500 4 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 38.630 0.137 186.384 5 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 38.684 0.191 186.123 6 20 Matt Kenseth Toyota 38.702 0.209 186.037 7 4 united_states Kevin Harvick Ford 38.710 0.217 185.998 8 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 38.768 0.275 185.720 9 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 38.835 0.342 185.400 10 19 mexico Daniel Suarez Toyota 38.958 0.465 184.814

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