Kyle Larson Snags Chicago Street Race Pole

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

CHICAGO – Kyle Larson made everyone stand up and take notice on Saturday in Chicago, scoring the pole for Sunday’s second-annual running of the NASCAR Chicago Street Race.

After posting the fast time in practice, Larson rolled that speed right into qualifying, leading his group to advance to the final round, where he was fast once again, rocketing around the 12-turn, 2.2-mile course in one minute, 27.836 seconds to claim his fifth pole of the season.

Larson, who currently leads the Cup Series points standings, will also be credited with the new track record courtesy of his first round qualifying lap of one minute, 27.518 seconds to eclipse the previous track record held by 2023 polesitter Denny Hamlin.

He will be joined on the front row by Ty Gibbs, who timed in just .010 seconds behind Larson.

“Any road course, I think you feel like the driver means a little bit more,” said Larson. “But I don’t feel like I’m any better of a road racer one year later. I think my team is just, like I just mentioned, it’s their second year here. They studied their notes from last year and made our car a lot better in the areas that I needed help. So I think that’s what makes me really proud, too.

“We have a team that’s capable of doing that. I feel like last year, in qualifying especially, the Gibbs’ cars were – gosh, I was like a second off the pace. I mean I still made the final round, but I was like close to a second off the pace.

“This year, I know we barely beat Ty (Gibbs), but I feel like compared to Martin (Truex Jr.), Denny (Hamlin) and (Tyler) Reddick.. guys like that, I feel like we’re now not quite a bit better, but better than we were last year. I’m mostly, for this weekend, proud of that and our team.”

The remainder of the top-10 fastest drivers will be Michael McDowell, Tyler Reddick, Shane van Gisbergen, Bubba Wallace, Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez, and Brad Keselowski.

“Today’s the day you have to push really hard to get track position,” McDowell said of everyone pushing the limits in qualifying. “And then tomorrow, you’ll still have to have that pace. Still, you’re not going to be pushing every last inch every single lap because you’ll be able to control those cars behind you, so that’s why today was worth the risk to put yourself up front, and there’ll be times tomorrow where it’s worth the risk as well.

“Still, you know the toughest thing about a street race is anytime you race with a lot of concrete barriers is when you’re tucked up behind somebody knowing where those points are. Where the corner apexes are, where the limits are because your visual is so limited when you’re behind somebody. That’s when you can make the big mistakes. You turn in a little early and you’re in the fence.

“So yeah, I enjoy the challenge of it because you have to be so laser-focused and dialed in but tomorrow’s race is going to be a dogfight.”

Defending race winner Shane van Gisbergen noted that it was an unfortunate timing miscue that led to him only being able to qualify fifth fastest, but remained confident that he’ll be in the mix when the chips are on the table.

“I think it’s pretty good,” van Gisbergen said of his car for Sunday. “Better than me. I didn’t do a good enough job. I was too conservative in the second part of qualifying and then we misjudged the timing. We went for a push lap, we were gonna do a cool off and then a push again and we just ran out of time.

“I could have got more out of it myself, so the potential is there, but these races are ridiculous. Always something happens. We gotta just try and stay up front, move front and hopefully we’ll be there at the end.”

Keselowski was one of several drivers to find trouble during qualifying, spinning his No. 6 Ford around in Turn 11 and backing into the concrete retaining wall to damage his machine to make for a long night of repairs.

Others to have issues in qualifying were Corey Lajoie, Josh Berry, Chris Buescher, and Harrison Burton.

Among those drivers, Buescher came away with the best result in 16^th, with Lajoie in 20^th, Burton in 31^st, and Berry in 36^th.

2024 NASCAR Chicago Street Race Starting Lineup