LAS VEGAS — Christopher Bell won the first pole of his career and will lead the field to green Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Bell turned a lap at 182.673 mph in Saturday qualifying to put his Toyota from Joe Gibbs Racing on the pole. Wind gusts of nearly 30 mph had drivers on edge headed into qualifying, but it wasn’t a factor as drivers avoided the spins that plagued them last week in California.
NASCAR champion Kyle Larson qualified second in a Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. Larson, the defending Las Vegas winner, is looking to put together a two-race winning streak following his victory last Sunday at Fontana.
Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric qualified third in a Ford for Team Penske. Cindric is the first rookie in NASCAR history to lead the Cup points standings for more than one race.
Chase Briscoe continued his strong start to the season by qualifying fourth in a Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing. Briscoe opened the season with a third-place finish at Daytona and led 20 laps last week in California. He’s currently fifth in the standings.
Chase Elliott was fifth for Hendrick Motorsports and Penske driver Joey Logano was sixth. Tyler Reddick, who dominated last week at California until he was caught in a crash, was seventh for resurgent Richard Childress Racing. Austin Dillon was 10th for the team.
Las Vegas native Kyle Busch crashed his Toyota in practice and was not able to participate in the qualifying session. He lost control of his car when his left rear tire went flat and JGR had to pull out a backup for him to race.
But teams are limited in how many cars they have to date under the rollout of the new Next Gen model, and the JGR backup was considered a “parts car” and not for actual competition. The No. 18 team was working to get it ready for Sunday, when Busch will start last in the 37-car field.
Larson initially thought Busch had been spun by the wind.
“I was behind Kyle when he crashed and that was crazy,” Larson said. “It turned around backwards so fast. I don’t know if the wind had anything to do with that, something broke, he hit a seam or what. It was wild.”