Kyle Larson Wins Pole at Iowa Speedway
Kyle Larson took home his fourth pole of the season on Saturday at the Iowa Corn 350. Larson is emerging as one of the better NASCAR racers of this generation, as this was the 20th pole of his career. He beat Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, who had a qualifying time of 23.109, which was second to Larson’s 23.084. His lap at 136.458 mph put him above the competition, earning him the pole for the Inaugural Cup Race on Sunday night.
The qualifying session was lowered to one group as opposed to two due to weather delays, but nevertheless, the race was still conducted by groups. The top five fastest racers from each group were then placed into one group of ten, and the fastest speed of the ten qualifiers earned the pole. Larson is on a real hot streak now, as he also won last weekend's event in Sonoma. That was his third victory of the season. After the race, Larson spoke a bit about the day and the accomplishment.
He said, “It was challenging for sure. It wasn’t as challenging as I was expecting, I had just watched everybody go before me and everybody was really loose and on edge. I just tried to be under the edge a little bit, I guess.” Larson also emphasized the importance of speaking with his crew before the race.
Larson also said, “My lap felt fairly smooth and a little edgy but nothing as bad as I was expecting. It helped to go last, it helped to be able to watch everybody, got to talk with Cliff, Daniels, and the crew chief before I went out.” Though it would be pretty obvious to assume, he also expressed gratitude for the pole and had some thoughts on the weather as well. “Happy to get the pole.” He said. “I was hoping for rain and didn’t know how we would qualify.”
With revamps having been implanted such as the re-pavement of the Iowa track’s corners, the condition of the track had been a slight concern, or at least an area of interest, coming into the event. The practice session for the event that took place on Friday ended up resulting in some issues with tires, as five drivers suffered tire failures. The failures resulted in both Christopher Bell and Austin Cindric crashing and having to use backup vehicles for the rest of the weekend's events. Fortunately, nothing of the sort took place on Saturday. It was a great win for Larson, and I’m sure Sunday’s events will have plenty more headlines in store.
