NASCAR Cup Series championship leader Chase Elliott won the pole position for Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen at Wakins Glen (N.Y.) International (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) making a strong statement for his championship chases as the regular season winds down.
Elliott turned a lap of 125.147 mph around the 3.377-mile road course in the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet besting his teammate, reigning series champion Kyle Larson by a slight .015-seconds to claim his third pole position of the season and the 12th of this career.
It is a fitting front row for the race start with Elliott and Larson combining for five road course wins just last year. Elliott is a two-time Watkins Glen winner – earning his career first trophy there in 2018 with seven road course victories. Larson is the defending race winner.
“I feel like there’s still work to do there from where we were in practice,’’ the 26-year old Elliott said. “Feel like there’s a couple parts of the track I want to put together better. Just really hard to hit all of it. It’s just so fast. The pace is just so high in this car here.
“I feel like from what I remember with so much throttle you’re carrying, a little bit really goes a long way.’’
Former DAYTONA 500 winner and road course ace Michael McDowell will share the second row with another Hendrick driver, William Byron. Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick – who won the series’ last road course event at Indianapolis three weeks ago – was fifth fastest and will start alongside Xfinity Series championship contender A.J. Allmendinger.
Ford drivers Chris Buescher and rookie Austin Cindric make up row eight followed by Daniel Suárez and the top-qualifying Toyota driven by Kyle Busch.
Also of note, Christopher Bell had engine issues during practice and was unable to make a qualifying run so he will start 38th in the 39-car field.
Longtime sports car ace, Joey Hand earned a 17th place qualifying position in the No. 15 Ford. Former Formula One world champion Kimi Räikkönen will roll off from 27th position on the grid in his first NASCAR Cup Series start. Another former F1 driver, Daniel Kvyat will start 36th.
NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying Go Bowling at The Glen
Watkins Glen International
Watkins Glen, New York
Saturday, August 20, 2022
- (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 125.147 mph.
- (5) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 125.078 mph.
- (34) Michael McDowell, Ford, 124.685 mph.
- (24) William Byron, Chevrolet, 124.557 mph.
- (8) Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, 124.511 mph.
- (16) AJ Allmendinger(i), Chevrolet, 124.260 mph.
- (17) Chris Buescher, Ford, 123.911 mph.
- (2) Austin Cindric #, Ford, 123.642 mph.
- (99) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 123.364 mph.
- (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 122.951 mph.
- (48) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
- (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
- (31) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
- (14) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 0.000 mph.
- (6) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 0.000 mph.
- (45) Ty Gibbs(i), Toyota, 0.000 mph.
- (15) Joey Hand, Ford, 0.000 mph.
- (1) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
- (38) Todd Gilliland #, Ford, 0.000 mph.
- (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 0.000 mph.
- (47) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
- (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
- (23) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
- (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 0.000 mph.
- (19) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 0.000 mph.
- (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 0.000 mph.
- (91) Kimi Raikkonen, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
- (42) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
- (41) Cole Custer, Ford, 0.000 mph.
- (21) Harrison Burton #, Ford, 0.000 mph.
- (43) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
- (7) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
- (77) Mike Rockenfeller, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
- (27) Loris Hezemans(i), Ford, 0.000 mph.
- (10) Aric Almirola, Ford, 0.000 mph.
- (26) Daniil Kvyat, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
- (78) Kyle Tilley, Ford, 0.000 mph.
- (20) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
- (51) Cody Ware, Ford, 0.000 mph.
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