Larson first again in qualifying
Cup leader seeks second straight win from pole position.
Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray finished 1-2 in qualifying Saturday at Sonoma Raceway, giving Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolets the front row for today’s NASCAR Cup race on the 2-mile road course in California’s wine country.
Larson drove a lap at 95.295 mph, edging McMurray’s 95.204.
Larson, the series points leader, is coming off a win last week at Michigan — where he also started from the pole. McMurray is seeking his first victory of the season.
“The whole lap actually felt pretty bad,” Larson said. “I felt like I gave up enough there that I wouldn’t have a shot at the pole. So, I was surprised and I was happy about that. Jamie is always really good when we come to road courses. It was a big deal to beat Jamie there in qualifying.
“Hopefully, we can be 1-2 in the race as well.”
Larson planned to be a spectator Saturday night at Calistoga Speedway, where best friend, Rico Abreu, was hosting a charity sprint car race set to feature Tony Stewart and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
“This is cool to get a pole on a road course at my home state. This is my closest track to Sacramento, or Elk Grove, where I grew up. I have lots of friends and family here. We’re going to celebrate with the team, and then we’re going to head out to Calistoga and go watch some sprint car racing.”
McMurray noted that Ganassi had left Sonoma to return to the IndyCar event in Wisconsin, but the car owner would be reaching out to his drivers shortly.
“The team’s been on a roll,” McMurray said. “I know Chip went back to Road America today and I’ll be getting a phone call soon. He’ll be pretty pumped.”
Martin Truex Jr. qualified third in a Toyota for Furniture Row Racing, and Kyle Busch was fourth in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.
AJ Allmendinger was fifth for JTG Daugherty Racing, and Danica Patrick was sixth for Stewart-Haas Racing in her best qualifying effort of the season. She had the highest-qualifying Ford.
IndyCar: Team Penske swept the first four spots in qualifying for today’s race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.
Helio Castroneves won the pole in a Chevrolet, turning in a lap time of 1:41.30. He beat defending champion Will Power by .06 of a second. Josef Newgarden finished third and Simon Pagenaud came in fourth.
Points leader Scott Dixon will start fifth.
Formula One: Lewis Hamilton moved to second on the all-time list for F1 pole positions when he used a late surge to beat Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas by nearly a half-second in qualifying for today’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix at Baku.
“There was a lot of pressure with a minute left. It was all or nothing,” said Hamilton, whose 66th pole moved him one ahead of Ayrton Senna and just two behind Michael Schumacher’s record of 68. “That was one of the most exciting laps I’ve had all year.”
Kimi Raikkonen was more than one second behind Hamilton, qualifying third ahead of Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel.
“I’m not too bothered by the gap. As a team, we got what we could,” said Vettel, the series leader by 12 points over Hamilton. “The race pace should be a lot closer on Sunday.”
NASCAR Trucks: John Hunter Nemechek, who took four new tires on his Chevrolet during the final caution, passed leader Johnny Sauter on the restart and raced to his second consecutive victory Friday night at Iowa Speedway in Newton.
Chase Briscoe, who had finished second in back-toback races, passed Sauter with 18 laps left on the 7/8-mile oval and seemed assured of his first career win if the race stayed caution free. It didn’t, because Matt Crafton got clipped and sent into the wall just a few laps later.