Christopher Bell will kickoff the NASCAR Cup Series Round of 8 on the pole for Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Bell wheeled his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to a fastest speed of 185.344 mph, besting Toyota teammate Tyler Reddick by 0.013 seconds.
Looking ahead to Sunday, Bell stressed the importance of execution to convert a pole into a victory. A win would punch his ticket into the Championship 4.
“A lot of execution,” Bell began. “Las Vegas, and all of these Cup races, are just really long races and there is a lot of things that go on between the green flag and the checkered flag that dictates the outcome of the race. I’ve sat in this position many times now, and I’ve yet to win the race on Sunday starting from that first position.
“We’ve come close several times, and this is a great race track for me. I’m optimistic about it and I felt really good in practice. Sometimes that means more than you see in qualifying. I think we have the car to do it, and hopefully, I’m up for the job, our team executes well, and we are able to put it all together.”
Behind a Toyota lockout of the front row, Alex Bowman qualified his No. 48 Chevrolet in third.
Bowman was disqualified from last week’s Cup Series race at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Road Course, which removed the Hendrick Motorsports driver from the Round of 8 field.
Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson rounded out the top-five qualifiers.
A pair of non-playoff Chevrolets in rookie Carson Hocevar (sixth) and Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain (seventh) followed suit. JGR’s Ty Gibbs starts eighth, with Daytona 500 winner William Byron (ninth) and Team Penske’s Joey Logano completing the top 10.
“I think we’re good on the long run,” Logano said. “Our short run speed is not real good, but I think we can make some adjustments to try and equal that out a little bit. For qualifying, we just didn’t have enough grip.”
Other playoff drivers not in the top include: Chase Elliott (18th) and Ryan Blaney (37th).
Blaney starts last due to a practice crash which forced the No. 12 Team Penske team to go to a backup car.