Kyle Larson tied a new personal record for most poles in a season with four on Saturday at Iowa Speedway and this is only the halfway point of the campaign.
Larson, ironically, was rooting for a mid-afternoon thunderstorm to persist, because NASCAR rules would have placed him on the pole that way. Instead, the rain lifted, and he did it the old-fashioned way with a 23.084 second lap around the 0.875-mile oval.
It was just barely enough to edge ahead of the 23.084 second lap laid down by Ryan Blaney — a difference of 0.025 of a second.
“It was challenging, but it wasn’t as challenging as I thought it would be,” said Larson, who had the benefit of watching 35 other drivers make attempts ahead of him. “It helps going out last. It helps being able to watch everybody.
“But I was hoping for rain.”
Larson was the last driver to complete his lap and Blaney was just hoping he could survive one more attempt.
“I wish I could have picked up on the second lap a little more,” said the defending Cup Series champion, who said it was Turns 3 and 4 that cost him the most.
As a result of the rain, which delayed the session by 45 minutes, there was only one round or qualifying with the top five drivers from Group A and the top five from Group B comprising the top-10 starting positions.
Due to rubber being reapplied onto the racing surface, those who were in Group B had a speed advantage with each of the top-five starting positions going to drivers from that group. Josh Berry will start third, followed by William Byron and Brad Keselowski/
Chase Briscoe paced Group A and will start sixth, followed by Kyle Busch, Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott was the 10th fastest qualifier but will have to start at the back due to a crash in practice sending him to a backup car for the weekend.
The rest of the field was ordered by group in alternating numbers. Joey Logano, sixth in Group B, starts 11th beside Denny Hamlin, sixth fastest in Group A.
The race airs on Sunday at 7 p.m. on USA Network.
STARTING LINEUP
Kyle Larson
Ryan Blaney
Josh Berry
William Byron
Brad Keselowski
Chase Briscoe
Kyle Busch
Tyler Reddick
Chase Elliott
Joey Logano
Denny Hamlin
Daniel Suarez
Todd Gilliland
Chris Buescher
Bubba Wallace
Ross Chastain
AJ Allmendinger
Justin Haley
Carson Hocevar
Michael McDowell
Noah Gragson
Corey LaJoie
Harrison Burton
Zane Smith
Ty Gibbs
Kaz Grala
Ryan Preece
Martin Truex, Jr.
Daniel Hemric
Erik Jones
Alex Bowman
John Hunter Nemechek
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
Austin Dillon
Christopher Bell
Austin Cindric