Larson wins 5th career pole, Harvick also up front at Dover

DOVER, Del. — Kyle Larson had a good week with some nice drives.

Larson enjoyed playing in a PGA Tour Pro-Am, then turned a lap of 158.103 mph on Friday to take the pole at Dover International Speedway. In winning his fifth career pole, he gave Chevrolet a needed boost and its first pole since Alex Bowman took the top spot at the Daytona 500 back in February.

“Our team hasn’t once been stressed out about the new Camaro,” Larson said. “I don’t know what other people and teams are battling. I think balance-wise I feel exactly the same as what I did last year. It hasn’t been an issue to us. I feel like speed-wise, we are close to where we were.”

Larson will try Sunday to win his first race of the season and the Chip Ganassi Racing driver should be considered a favorite. Larson was runner-up in each of the last two spring races at Dover and has a 7.9 average finish in eight career races on the mile-long track.

Kevin Harvick in his Ford will be beside Larson on the front row as the Stewart-Haas Racing star goes for his fourth win of the season. Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completed the top five in Friday’s qualifying.

Larson is a natural behind the wheel, but the 25-year-old is still learning his way on the links. Larson only picked up golf as a hobby two years ago but he jumped at the chance Wednesday to play with Russell Henley at Quail Hollow, the Charlotte, North Carolina site of the Wells Fargo Championship.

“I love golf,” Larson said. “As each week passes by, I’ve become more obsessed with it.”

Larson said he was about as nervous as he could remember before he approached the first tee box. But he steeled himself for his first drive and — sure enough — boom: “right down the fairway.” Henley, who has three PGA Tour wins, gave Larson some needed pointers.

“It was just very relaxing out there on the golf course and all the fans there didn’t really bother me at all either,” Larson said. “It was just cool to get to play with him and get to experience the whole thing.”