NEWTON — Kyle Larson won the pole position Saturday afternoon for Sunday’s inaugural Iowa Corn 350 after qualifying was delayed by rain.
Larson won last week at Sonoma Raceway in northern California. NASCAR modified qualifying because the start was delayed about 40 minutes by rain. Instead of taking the fastest five times from two groups of 18 drivers and then having drivers run again to determine the top-10, NASCAR took the five fastest times from each group and then ranked them in the top-10.
Because of the delay the track improved with each run, giving the last drivers a big advantage over drivers who qualified early. On May 28 Larson participated in a Goodyear tire test at the track with Brad Keselowski and Christopher Bell.
Larson, Keselowski and Bell tested for more than 10 hours on May 28, but the car feels way different this weekend than it did then, Larson said. He relied on data from his Hendrick Motorsports teammates Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman and William Byron to learn from what they did in practice Friday, Larson said.
“If anything, I think you can get led down the wrong road by testing here a few weeks ago,” Larson said. “We’ve got great teammates to rely on and a couple of them were really fast yesterday and were able to study what they had and talk. I think we’ve made our car better and obviously our performance last week helped for qualifying this week, getting to go out last.”
Larson is the biggest name in motorsports right now. He won the pole three weeks after attempting to race in the Indianapolis 500, the most prestigious race in the world, and the Coca-Cola 600, a NASCAR crown-jewel on the same day.
Stewart-Haas Racing driver Chase Briscoe hoped qualifying would happen because after practice his team made changes to his car. Qualifying could give his team a chance to affirm or disprove the changes, Briscoe said. He also believed he had a decent car. Briscoe ended up qualifying sixth, on the outside of row three.
“With how they do the order if qualifying is rained out we would start 28th,” Briscoe said before qualifying. “I know we would qualify better than 28th. So we really want to qualify with how hard it’s going to be to pass.”
The Iowa Corn 350 is scheduled for 6 p.m. Sunday. It will be shown on USA Network and on the Motor Racing Network (radio).
Row 1
1. Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
2. Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford.
Row 2
3. Josh Berry, No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.
4. William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
Row 3
5. Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford.
6. Chase Briscoe, No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.
Row 4
7. Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
8. Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota.
Row 5
9. Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
10. Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Row 6
11. Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford.
12. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Row 7
13. Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet.
14. Todd Gilliland, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford.
Row 8
15. Chris Buescher, No. 17 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford.
16. Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota.
Row 9
17. Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet.
18. AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet.
Row 10
19. Justin Haley, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet.
20. Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
Row 11
21. Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford.
22. Michael McDowell, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford.
Row 12
23. Noah Gragson, No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.
24. Corey Lajoie, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
Row 13
25. Harrison Burton, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford.
26. Zane Smith, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
Row 14
27. Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
28. Kaz Grala, No. 15 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet.
Row 15
29. Ryan Preece, No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.
30. Daniel Hemric, No. 31 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet.
Row 16
31. Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
32. Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota.
Row 17
33. Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
34. John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota.
Row 18
35. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet.
36. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
Philip Joens covers retail and real estate for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Pole position, starting spots for NASCAR Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway
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