Larson tops Buescher again in Kansas qualifying

Kyle Larson got the best of Chris Buescher again at Kansas Speedway.

Larson, the last driver to get on track in NASCAR Cup Series qualifying, took the pole for Sunday’s race. He knocked Buescher from the top spot.

It puts the duo on the front row a year after they were involved in the closest finish in NASCAR Cup Series history at the same track. Larson also won that battle after he charged around the outside of Buescher, coming to the checkered flag. The margin was just 0.001s.

Larson’s pole-winning lap was 183.730mph (29.391s).

“It’s pretty ironic, I guess, to have us both on the front row here after our close finish a year ago. It’s cool to finally get a pole here, too, at Kansas. I feel like I’ve been just short a number of times, and I hope they still give out that pedal car because that’s what I’ve always wanted, especially having some kids. I hope that’s still a thing.

“But I’m proud of the whole HendrickCars team … Off to a good start. Hopefully, we can do a good job tomorrow.”

Buescher qualified second with his lap of 183.374mph (29.448s).

“We couldn’t manufacture a better story if we tried, could we?” Buescher laughed. “That was a really awesome lap for our Kroger/Kleenex Ford Mustang. I’m proud of this group. Practice was really solid. Texas last week was awesome, so we came in here with a lot of high hopes, and it’s showing up already. We missed it by that much, but we’re in a good spot. That will put us in clean air for the start of this race, and it’s a track we’ve been really good at.”

Christopher Bell qualified third at 183.268mph, Tyler Reddick fourth at 183.150mph and Joey Logano rounded out the top five at 182.871mph.

Ty Gibbs qualified sixth at 182.735mph, William Byron seventh at 182.624mph, Daniel Suarez eighth at 182.476mph, Chase Elliott ninth at 182.463mph and Ryan Blaney completed the top 10 at 182.457mph.

Michael McDowell and Spire Motorsports teammate Justin Haley qualified 11th and 12th, respectively. Austin Cindric qualified 13th, Denny Hamlin was 14th, and Bubba Wallace was 15th.

Zane Smith qualified 18th. He hit the wall during practice when the right rear tire blew.

Alex Bowman qualified 21st and Ross Chastain qualified 26th. Corey Heim qualified 28th for his first Cup Series start of the season.

Kyle Busch qualified 35th. Busch, a former Kansas Speedway winner, caught the wall and rode it through Turn 4 on his fast lap.

Josh Berry qualified last. The Wood Brothers Racing driver’s lap was ruined when he caught the wall and rode it through Turns 3 and 4.

There are 38 teams that will take the green flag Sunday afternoon.

NEXT: AdventHealth 400 at 3 p.m. ET Sunday.

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