Kyle Larson earns Sonoma pole over Martin Truex Jr.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver captured the Busch Pole Award Saturday for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race with a qualifying speed of 94.597 mph in his No. 42 Chevrolet.

It was Larson’s second pole of the season (he qualified No. 1 at Dover International Speedway) and the sixth of his Cup career.

Martin Truex Jr. (Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota) grabbed the No. 2 spot with his final-round qualifying effort of 94.484 mph.

Chase Elliott (Hendrick Motorsports), Ganassi teammate Jamie McMurray and AJ Allmendinger (JTG-Daugherty Racing) completed the top five.

“I think the first round, I just wanted to get a fairly smooth lap in and not make any mistakes to try to get into the top 12,” Larson said of his initial run that put him 10^th among those who advanced to the final round. 

“I felt like I ran a clean lap but I felt there were some areas I could make up some time … a lot in the braking zones. I felt like I made up most of my speed in the final round there.”

A five-time winner in the Cup Series, Larson’s best finish in four career starts at Sonoma is 12^th. He is still looking for his first win of the ’18 season.

“I have a long way to go to get better racing here,” he admitted. “I’m working hard to get better.

“I can always qualify good here for some reason bur racing seems to be a struggle.”

Truex, the defending series champion as well as a winner this year at Auto Club Speedway and Pocono Raceway, just missed collecting what would have been his fifth pole of the year. His

“A little bit off in Turn 2,” Truex said of his final-round run. “Missed my line a little bit and was a little late getting back to the gas there.”

Kevin Harvick, the defending race winner, will line up sixth in the 38-car field.

The Toyota/Save Mart 350 is scheduled to go green Sunday just after 3 p.m. ET.

Round 1

Allmendinger, the Sonoma pole winner in 2015, paced the 25-minute opening round, posting a top lap of 75.828 seconds (94.477 mph) in his No. 47 Chevrolet to advance.

Truex Jr. (Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota) was second, followed by Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Elliott, Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski.

Among those failing to advance to the final round were Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer, the series’ most recent winner.

Hamlin (Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) will start 21^st in the 38-car lineup.

Questionable track conditions, the result of a blown engine during K&N Pro Series West qualifying moments before Cup qualifying, resulted in Hamlin and several others waiting as late as possible before making their qualifying attempt.

“Nobody wanted to be first out,” Hamlin said. “Definitely disappointed with our effort. … The car is a lot better in race trim. … Just off on speed there.”

Bowyer, the winner at Michigan two weeks ago, will line up 19^th; Busch will start 23^rd.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Time	Gap	Mph
1	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	1'15.732		94.597
2	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	1'15.822	0.090	94.484
3	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	1'15.841	0.109	94.461
4	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	1'16.029	0.297	94.227
5	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	1'16.274	0.542	93.925
6	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	1'16.330	0.598	93.856
7	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	1'16.356	0.624	93.824
8	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	1'16.411	0.679	93.756
9	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	1'16.474	0.742	93.679
10	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	1'16.695	0.963	93.409
11	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	1'16.740	1.008	93.354
12	22	Joey Logano	Ford	1'17.609	1.877	92.309
13	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	1'16.657	0.925	93.455
14	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	1'16.658	0.926	93.454
15	21	Paul Menard	Ford	1'16.671	0.939	93.438
16	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	1'16.725	0.993	93.372
17	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	1'16.812	1.080	93.267
18	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	1'16.813	1.081	93.265
19	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	1'16.824	1.092	93.252
20	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	1'16.833	1.101	93.241
21	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	1'16.875	1.143	93.190
22	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	1'16.928	1.196	93.126
23	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	1'16.938	1.206	93.114
24	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	1'16.978	1.246	93.066
25	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	1'17.012	1.280	93.024
26	95	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	1'17.018	1.286	93.017
27	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	1'17.090	1.358	92.930
28	38	David Ragan	Ford	1'17.457	1.725	92.490
29	23	Gray Gaulding	Toyota	1'17.536	1.804	92.396
30	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	1'17.625	1.893	92.290
31	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	1'17.664	1.932	92.244
32	72	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	1'17.747	2.015	92.145
33	15	Justin Marks	Chevrolet	1'17.903	2.171	91.961
34	96	Parker Kligerman	Toyota	1'18.276	2.544	91.522
35	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	1'18.571	2.839	91.179
36	51	Chris Cook	Ford	1'19.129	3.397	90.536
37	00	Tomy Drissi	Chevrolet	1'19.726	3.994	89.858
38	52	Cody Ware	Chevrolet	1'20.296	4.564	89.220