Kyle Larson takes third straight pole at Sonoma Cup race

Larson dominated both rounds of qualifying on Saturday, using an average lap speed of 95.712 mph to win the pole for Sunday’s Toyota Save Mart 350 for the third consecutive season.

In five previous starts at the track, however, Larson has never finished better than 12th.

“I guess the trend with my three poles is winning a pole and then struggling in the race. Hopefully, we’ll have something different for tomorrow,” Larson said. “I feel good.

“We did a mock run yesterday in practice and ran a good lap. I kind of over-drove the first session and then the next session I said, ‘I’m going to calm down and not make any mistakes’ and I probably under-drove just a little.

“In the Carousel I think I gave up a little speed but I feel like I made up some time in other areas, too. It’s cool to get a third pole at my home track.”

The pole is Larson’s first of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season and eighth of his career.

Pole Award Winner Kyle Larson, Chip Ganassi Racing, Chevrolet Camaro Credit One Bank

Photo by: Russell LaBounty / NKP / LAT Images

William Byron ended up second (95.669 mph) and Joey Logano was third (95.618 mph). Chase Elliott and Daniel Suarez completed the top-five.

Rounding out the top 12 starters are Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, Jimmie Johnson and Alex Bowman.

Round 1

Larson, looking for his third consecutive pole at Sonoma, got off to a strong start, leading the way in the first 20-minute session.

Larson’s average lap speed of 95.901 mph topped Suarez (95.781 mph) and Byron (95.687 mph). Logano was fourth and Blaney completed the top-five.

Also advancing to the final round were Buescher, Kyle Busch, Bowman, Hamlin, Elliott, Johnson and Truex.

Among those who failed to advance were Michael McDowell; three Stewart-Haas Racing cars – Clint Bowyer, Aric Almirola and Kevin Harvick; Brad Keselowski; Austin Dillon; Bubba Wallace; and Erik Jones.

“I think we have a good car. I felt like it was really good on the long run yesterday, it’s hard to have the best of both worlds here,” Almirola said. “Sometimes you sacrifice the short-run speed.”

Jones had trouble in Turn 1 on his initial lap as he fell off the pace with a flat left-rear tire. He then had to limp his way on the entire track back to pit road, which did extensive damage to the left-rear wheel well.

“It was flat the whole lap, I just didn’t know it, I was sliding all over the place,” Jones said. Jones will have to move to a backup car which will entail him starting Sunday’s race from the rear of the field.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Time	Gap	Mph
1	42	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	1'34.784		95.712
2	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	1'34.827	0.043	95.669
3	22	Joey Logano		Ford	1'34.878	0.094	95.618
4	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	1'34.898	0.114	95.597
5	41	Daniel Suarez		Ford	1'35.260	0.476	95.234
6	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	1'35.287	0.503	95.207
7	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota	1'35.367	0.583	95.127
8	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	1'35.399	0.615	95.095
9	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	1'35.507	0.723	94.988
10	37	Chris Buescher		Chevrolet	1'35.668	0.884	94.828
11	48	Jimmie Johnson		Chevrolet	1'36.156	1.372	94.347
12	88	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	1'36.374	1.590	94.133
13	34	Michael McDowell		Ford	1'35.449	0.665	95.046
14	14	Clint Bowyer		Ford	1'35.485	0.701	95.010
15	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	1'35.624	0.840	94.872
16	1	Kurt Busch		Chevrolet	1'35.746	0.962	94.751
17	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Ford	1'35.749	0.965	94.748
18	38	David Ragan		Ford	1'35.821	1.037	94.677
19	95	Matt DiBenedetto		Toyota	1'35.926	1.142	94.573
20	47	Ryan Preece		Chevrolet	1'36.070	1.286	94.431
21	6	Ryan Newman		Ford	1'36.106	1.322	94.396
22	2	Brad Keselowski		Ford	1'36.118	1.334	94.384
23	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford	1'36.130	1.346	94.372
24	21	Paul Menard		Ford	1'36.281	1.497	94.224
25	8	Daniel Hemric		Chevrolet	1'36.294	1.510	94.211
26	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	1'36.457	1.673	94.052
27	32	Corey Lajoie		Ford	1'36.484	1.700	94.026
28	36	Matt Tifft		Ford	1'36.781	1.997	93.737
29	96	Parker Kligerman		Toyota	1'37.006	2.222	93.520
30	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.		Chevrolet	1'37.020	2.236	93.506
31	13	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	1'37.040	2.256	93.487
32	20	Erik Jones		Toyota	1'37.530	2.746	93.018
33	77	Justin Haley		Chevrolet	1'37.911	3.127	92.656
34	52	Cody Ware		Ford	1'38.432	3.648	92.165
35	00	Landon Cassill		Chevrolet	1'38.719	3.935	91.897
36	51	J.J. Yeley		Ford	1'39.161	4.377	91.488
37	15	Kyle Weatherman		Chevrolet	1'42.283	7.499	88.695
38	27	Reed Sorenson		Chevrolet