BRISTOL, Tenn. — A bit of ray of sunshine was all Alex Bowman wanted to safe the pole place for Sunday’s Meals Metropolis 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Nicely, not fairly all. Bowman additionally needed to flip a blistering lap in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet throughout Saturday’s time trials on the 0.533-mile brief observe, and he did simply that.
Bowman lined the gap in 14.912 seconds (128.675 mph) — the quickest lap ever run at Bristol within the NASCAR Cup Collection Subsequent Gen automotive. That was ok to carry off fellow Chevrolet driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (128.563 mph) by 0.013 seconds to safe the highest beginning spot for the ninth Cup Collection race of the season.
It wasn’t simply the Busch Mild Pole Award that had Bowman salivating. In depth tire put on within the observe session that preceded qualifying in comparison with final yr’s spring occasion in Thunder Valley, the place tire fall-off was a vital facet of the competitors.
“I feel we’re all way more ready than we have been final spring,” mentioned Bowman, who ran his lap beneath favorable cloud cowl — with the solar popping out shortly after his qualifying try and warming the observe barely on an in any other case chilly day.
“I am excited for a tire administration race. It should be loads of enjoyable. We’ll see what we have got,” he added.
“We began observe with rubber already on the observe from the Xfinity automobiles, peeled it proper up and sawed the tires proper off. Yeah, complicated why we’re doing it once more after we did not do it within the fall.
“It should be hotter tomorrow. Perhaps that adjustments it. It is actually troublesome to say. I feel it may be like that (the spring race), however we’ll discover out collectively, I feel.”
Kyle Larson (128.511 mph) certified third, after profitable the pole place for Saturday’s Xfinity Collection race earlier within the day. Denny Hamlin, winner of the final two Cup occasions, was fourth within the quickest Toyota at 128.460 mph, and Ryan Blaney topped all different Ford drivers with a fifth-place qualifying lap at 128.305 mph.
In seven of the final eight Cup races at Bristol, the winner has come from the highest 5 spots on the beginning grid — two from the pole and two from the second beginning place.
Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell claimed the sixth and seventh beginning spots, with AJ Allmendinger, Carson Hocevar and Justin Haley claiming eighth, ninth and tenth, respectively.
Kyle Busch was fifteenth quickest in qualifying, however he spun off Flip 4 on his second lap and flat-spotted his tires. Joey Logano, who certified instantly after Busch, broke free off Flip 2 and smacked the surface wall with the fitting rear of his No. 22 Staff Penske Ford. Logano will begin thirty eighth on Sunday.
Xfinity Collection common Jesse Love certified nineteenth for his Cup Collection debut on Sunday within the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
Hyak Motorsports’ Ricky Stenhouse Jr. topped the leaderboard in observe at 128.082 mph forward of Staff Penske drivers Blaney (127.571 mph) and Austin Cindric (127.140 mph).
Larson (126.737 mph) and Chase Elliott (126.520 mph) rounded out the highest 5 for Hendrick Motorsports.
Brad Keselowski (126.495 mph), Hamlin (126.461 mph), Busch (126.337 mph), John Hunter Nemechek (126.187 mph) and Bowman (126.121 mph) accomplished the highest 10.
–Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service. Particular to Area Degree Media.
