Larson to start on pole for fifth straight year at Sonoma

SONOMA, CALIF. » Kyle Larson can’t be beaten lately in qualifying at Sonoma Raceway, and he hopes his recent superiority leads to a similar stretch of dominance in the race.

Larson will start on the pole for the fifth straight time in the NASCAR Cup Series race at his home track after edging Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott on Saturday in qualifying on the hilly road course in wine country.

Larson, who turned a lap at 92.11 mph in his Chevrolet, has won four consecutive poles for the race at Sonoma since 2017. There was no race in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and NASCAR didn’t hold qualifying in 2021, but the Sacramento-area native still started up front alongside Elliott through the alternative formula used last year.

Larson capitalized last year by winning the race in overtime. The defending Cup Series champion even surprised himself this year with his surge to the front of the field on the difficult course that challenges drivers to quickly figure out its twists and quirks.

“I feel like I could have run quite a bit faster,” Larson said. “On my good lap, I made a pretty big mistake in Turn 4. I was surprised I ran the lap that I did, because it was such a big mistake.”

Elliott was a fraction of a second behind Larson, and Chris Buescher qualified an impressive third after missing last week’s race at Gateway because of a positive COVID-19 test. Michael McDowell finished fourth ahead of Tyler Reddick, while Cole Custer came home sixth.

Rossi fastest at Road America

ELKHART LAKE, WIS. » Alexander Rossi won his first pole in three years and will now try to snap a losing streak that dates just as long.

Rossi will start from the pole Sunday at Road America, site of his last IndyCar Series victory 44 races ago on June 23, 2019.

“It’s pretty crazy to just think it’s been so long,” Rossi said.

Rossi turned a lap in qualifying of 1 minute, 44.8656 seconds on the 14-turn, 4.048-mile permanent road course considered one of the best in the world. His lap put the Andretti Autosport driver on pole for the first time since Belle Isle in 2019, three weeks before his last win.

Josef Newgarden of Team Penske qualified second and was followed by Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Alex Palou, the reigning series champion, and Marcus Ericsson, the Indianapolis 500 winner.

Leclerc takes pole for Azerbaijan GP

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN » Charles Leclerc is back on pole. Now comes the tricky task of converting it into a win.

Leclerc won the pole for the fourth consecutive race with a blistering lap around the Baku street circuit in Azerbaijan on Saturday, but the Ferrari driver failed to convert any of his last three pole positions into victories.

Leclerc ran a lap at 1 minute, 41.359 seconds with his last run of the session to beat Sergio Pérez of Red Bull by .282 seconds.