DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Death, taxes and and a Hendrick Motorsports driver starting on the Daytona 500 pole.
Defending Series champion Kyle Larson was fastest in Wednesday’s front-row qualifying with a blazing lap of 181.159 and will lead the field to green Sunday for the 64th Daytona 500. Hendrick teammate Alex Bowman will start second.
This is the 15th 500 pole for Hendrick Motorsports, and seventh since 2015.
William Byron, another Hendrick driver, was third-fastest and will start on the front row in his Thursday Duel race. Aric Almirola was the fastest Ford, qualifying fourth. Chase Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Chevy was fifth.
“It’s really neat,” Larson said. “A huge thank you to the engine shop at Hendrick Motorsports. Hopefully this is the beginning of a really good weekend.”
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The only non-Hendrick driver to lead the field to green in the past seven years was Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who put his JTG Daugherty Chevy on the pole in 2019 using a — you guessed it — Hendrick engine.
While Bowman just missed another 500 pole, he’ll still be starting on the front row for the fifth straight year.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “This says so much about Hendrick Motorsports.”
Martin Truex Jr. was sixth-quickest and the fastest Toyota, followed by Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin, Daniel Suarez and rookie Harrison Burton.
Penske teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney were 12th and 13th, while Kyle Busch made good on his earlier prediction and qualified 18th.
“(We’ll be) 18th if we’re lucky,” Busch said during his Daytona 500 media day appearance Wednesday afternoon. “We try, but we’re gonna be mid-pack. You’ll see a Hendrick car or two on the front row. Same old stuff. A new car, but the same stuff.”
Daytona 500 starting lineup: Jacques Villeneuve makes the race
The two open cars that qualified their way into Sunday’s Daytona 500 were Noah Gragson in the No. 62 Chevy and 1997 F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve. The 51 year old was 36th-fastest on the charts, three spots behind Gragson.
Kaz Grala — driving for Floyd Mayweather’s startup team, The Money Team Racing — JJ Yeley, Timmy Hill and Greg Biffle will all have to race their way into the 500 in Thursday’s Duels.
“It’s not like winning the Indy 500 or the F1 championship, but the last time I tried to qualify here was 14 years ago, and just to make the show is incredible because it’s a small team,” Villeneuve said.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona 500: Kyle Larson wins pole, edging out teammate Alex Bowman