Story By: HOLLY CAIN / NASCAR – LAS VEGAS, NV – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell won his first career NASCAR Cup Series pole position on Saturday and will lead the field in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube (3 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota bested the 10 cars that advanced to second round qualifying at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a lap of 182.673 mph.
Defending race winner Kyle Larson put his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on the outside of the front row after topping the speed chart in practice earlier Saturday morning. He was only .289-seconds off Bell’s pace – and the only other driver to top the 182-mph mark in the session.
That’s pretty cool,’’ said Bell, who is the second driver (also Austin Cindric at Auto Club Speedway) to score his first career pole position in 2022. “I feel really good about our DeWalt Camry. I knew our first run out (in practice) we were going to be pretty competitive.’’
Asked if the pole-win surprised him, Bell said, “Not really. All season our Camrys have had speed.’’
Now the talented 27-year old Oklahoman is hoping that speed translates into a better finish. He’s had tough luck in the season’s opening two races. He crashed out in the Daytona 500 and finished 24th and last weekend at California’s Auto Club Speedway, he had engine problems and finished 36th.
“You never know and nothing’s guaranteed,’’ Bell said. “But we’ve had a lot of speed and we’ve had promise and hopefully we start putting it together.
The Daytona 500 winner Cindric, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe and Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott rounded out the Top Five in qualifying. Cindric’s Team Penkse teammate Joey Logano, Chevy driver Tyler Reddick, Bell’s teammate Denny Hamlin, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon completed the Top 10 on Sunday’s grid.
