‘I was a bit surprised,’ Defending Toyota/ Save Mart 35 Champion Kyle Larson on securing pole for Sunday’s final race at Sonoma
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Kyle Larson
NASCAR will hit the repaved 1.99 miles Sonoma raceway on Sunday for the second Road Course event of the cup schedule following the early season race at COTA. The regular season coming to an end in just 10 rounds of racing and the fact that most of the coming races are on road courses makes the race even more competitive than it already is as the time and races left to secure playoff spots are getting thinner every week.
The drivers hit the track on Saturday for the practice and qualifying session for Sunday the defending cup series champion Kyle Larson dominated both the sessions clocking in the fastest lap, this also helped the defending race champion to secure his fourth successive pole at Sonoma. The California native secured a 92.111 mph (1m70.776s) lap earning him the pole ahead of his Hendrick Motorsport teammate Chase Elliott.
The top five are completed by Chris Buescher at third, Michael McDowell followed by RCR driver Tyler Reddick at P5. The highest qualified Ford belonged to Buescher while the No:11 JGR Camry of Denny Hamlin is the fastest Toyota on the track as starts at P10 just ahead of the Busch brothers. The Trackhouse racing duo of Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez is the other teammates in the top 10 than the HMS duo.
Find out what Kyle Larson had to say about his Sonoma pole
Kyle Larson acknowledged that he was a bit surprised by his pole win as he felt like he gave up a lot of time in turn 4 and 7 though it was a good outing. He went on to say that he could have been faster in those two corners with his HMS Chevy. He extended his thanks to the individuals who are part of the No:5 team shop and engine shop adding he is excited about the result.
“It was good. I was a bit surprised because I felt like I gave up a lot of time in Turn 4 and 7. So, had I had those two corners back I feel like I could have been quite a bit faster. Just a really good HendrickCars.com Chevy. Thanks to everybody on our team and everybody back at the shop; the engine shop. I’m excited about it,” Kyle Larson said.
Kyle Larson went on to say that his teammate Chase Elliott was able to make a statement about how strong and good he is in race trim as he laid off the lap in qualifying. He pointed out alluding to what Elliott did that he needs to come up with something which can make him better at long runs with the car he has now which is capable of doing more.
“For Chase to lay down that lap, I feel like shows how strong he is because he was really good in race trim too. So, I’ve got to figure some things out on my end. I think my car is capable of racing good, I’ve just got to get a little bit better on the long runs,” Kyle Larson added.
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