Christopher Bell scores third pole of the year at Kansas
Christopher Bell sped to his third Busch Light Pole of 2022 with a blistering lap in qualifying on Saturday at Kansas Speedway.
The No. 20 Toyota laid a lap of 179.575 mph around the 1.5-mile speedway to claim the No. 1 starting spot for Sunday’s race (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Tyler Reddick will start second with a lap of 178.855 mph ahead of Kyle Larson (178.772 mph), Austin Cindric (178.448 mph) and Kurt Busch (178.359 mph).
“We have everything we need to win the races, that is for sure,” Bell said. “Our cars are super-fast. I feel like I‘ve been driving pretty well, especially the last couple of weeks specifically. We just have to maintain our track position.”
Rounding out the top 10 on the starting grid are Kyle Busch, Aric Almirola, Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr. and Ryan Blaney.
RELATED: Starting lineup | Full Kansas schedule | Kansas at-track photos
Practice featured multiple on-track incidents, with the most frequent culprit being the left-rear tire. Chris Buescher, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Joey Logano each spun and crashed into the wall. Buescher and Logano will go to backup cars while Stenhouse’s primary car will undergo repairs.
“I lost the left rear going down the frontstretch,” said Buescher, whose team rolled out a backup car. “I guess, on corner entry, I started feeling a vibration, tried to slow down and didn‘t get it knocked down in time.
“…It‘s going to be a long night.”
Logano, who won last week’s race at Darlington Raceway, remained confident despite wrecking his primary car.
VIDEO: Logano smacks wall | Buescher wreck forces backup
“As soon as I turned down off into the corner, I could feel the shaking, and I knew it was bad,” said Logano, who will start from the rear in a backup car on Sunday. “We‘ll be all right. We‘ll fight through it. I think we were pretty decent in lap times before that, I believe, on long hauls, at least.”
Other drivers who suffered flat tires were Denny Hamlin and Blaney. Hamlin incurred damage to his rear diffuser, forcing his No. 11 team to change the part and meaning he will start Sunday’s race from the rear of the field. Cody Ware also spun in the session.
Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service, contributed to this story.
