SALISBURY, N.C. – Kyle Larson and Carson Kvapil were the top dogs during Tuesday night’s qualifying session for the sixth-annual QRC Open presented by HMS Motorsport at Millbridge Speedway.
The duo led their respective time trial flights for the crown-jewel event at the sixth-mile dirt oval, putting themselves in prime position going into Wednesday night’s $5,151-to-win feature event.
Larson was the overall fast qualifier, turning a lap of 9.8145 seconds (61.134 mph) with his No. 1k Factory QRC/McDonald’s/Chevrolet Accessories outlaw kart to lead the 42-driver field.
“I felt really good about my car all day, even though I’ve changed it a lot from what I’ve typically ran here. We had it on the scales a bunch going into this deal to get it right,” explained Larson, who was fastest in flight B. “I feel really confident about it though. We ran a fast lap for being in group two.”
Kvapil, who led flight A of qualifying, was third-quick overall with a time of 9.9566 seconds (60.262 mph) in his No. 35 CorvetteParts.net/Keen Parts/Global CFS Motorsports Financing/SKE Chassis machine.
“I didn’t have my kart completely right; I wanted my wing back a little bit,” said Kvapil. “I made do with what I had, though. The first lap I took it pretty easy, but the second lap … I basically took it as hard as I could without dying. I just wanted to put a lap together; I didn’t want to wreck it or anything like that.
“I think we’ve got a really good piece though, and I think we’ll be even faster tomorrow night.”
Chase Majdic – who won Tuesday night’s $1,000-to-win Open division feature – split Larson and Kvapil with the second-fastest lap of the night at 9.9225 seconds (60.469 mph), also in flight B of qualifying.
Max Mittry and Daniel Whitley completed the top five on the speed charts, followed by Tom Hubert, Colby Copeland, Caden Kvapil, Demo Mittry and Jesse Colwell.
Former track champion Max McLaughlin was an uncharacteristic 11th-quick in time trials, with his Phantom Racing Chassis teammate and 2017 Speed51 Open winner Nick Hoffman right behind in 12th.
Other notables in qualifying included Logan Seavey (17th), Tanner Holmes (20th) and Ethan Mitchell (27th).
Heat races and the alphabet soup leading into the QRC Open presented by HMS Motorsport kicks off at 6 p.m. on Wednesday evening.
To view complete qualifying results, advance to the next page.