LAS VEGAS — With a blistering lap of 187.156 mph in Saturday’s time trials at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Christopher Bell claimed the pole position for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400.
Bell navigated the 1.5-mile intermediate track in 28.853 seconds to beat Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin (186.188 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.150 seconds.
The Busch Light pole award was Bell’s first of the season, his fourth at Las Vegas, and the 15th of his career.
With JGR’s Ty Gibbs qualifying third at 185.803 mph and 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace fourth at 185.771 mph, Toyota swept the top four starting spots in a race for the seventh time in the manufacturer’s history in the NASCAR Cup Series, with the most recent occurrence coming at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last year.
This was the second straight Las Vegas race in which Toyotas have started 1-2-3, with Hamlin, Chase Briscoe and Bell doing the honors in qualifying last fall.
“It was pretty simple, really,” Bell said of his qualifying lap. “It takes a lot of commitment here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to qualify well. My team got their Ps and Qs right. We had a lot of grip, and I held my foot down, and we won the pole.”
Bell’s car seemed unbothered by the troublesome Turn 1 bumps that upset the efforts of several other competitors.
“It’s a compromise,” Bell said. “Every time you come to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, it’s a compromise of getting your car to have as much grip as you can have in (Turns) 3 and 4 without the bump hindering you in (Turns) 1 and 2.
“Anytime you make the car drive better across the bumps, you’re giving up performance on the smooth part of the race track, and my team nailed it.”
Reigning series champion Kyle Larson (185.54 8mph) qualified fifth in the fastest Chevrolet, with Phoenix winner Ryan Blaney (185.185 mph) claiming the sixth spot on the grid in the top Ford.
Series leader Tyler Reddick, winner of the first three races this season, will start seventh, followed by Ryan Preece, William Byron and Chris Buescher.
Defending race winner Josh Berry qualified 32nd in the Wood Brothers Racing Ford.
Note: The last seven times Bell has won a NASCAR Cup Series pole, he has finished the race in the top 10. His last two Las Vegas poles (2023 and 2024) have resulted in second-place finishes.
–By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service, Special to Field Level Media
