CHICAGO — It was another Kyle Larson pole on Saturday afternoon.
For the fifth time this season, the No. 5 entry was on top of the scoring pylon to end qualifying. Larson's lap time of 1:27.836 narrowly bested Ty Gibb's final run of 1:27.846 to claim the top spot. The pole position is the 21st for Larson individually and the 252nd time a driver from Hendrick Motorsports has qualified in the top spot.
"Yeah, this year in qualifying – really racing too – has been a strong suit," Larson said after taking the top starting spot for Sunday's race. "But qualifying, we’ve been able to execute and get five poles to this point. That’s special. Hopefully we can keep that up and keep our speed up in races, as well.”
Last season, Larson found success on the street circuit as he maneuvered around several drivers late in the race to earn a top-five result. He'll aim to back up his victory at Sonoma Raceway with another checkered flag this Sunday on the streets of Chicago.
PHOTOS: Scenes from the pole celebration
Also advancing to the final round of qualifying was Alex Bowman in the No. 48 Ally Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Bowman, who suffered a mechanical failure in 2023's edition of the Chicago Street Race, will look to improve upon his already impressive road course stats. With a pair of runner-up finishes already in his career, the team will have their sights set on breaking through for their first win of the 2024 campaign.
Chase Elliott qualified in the 18th position for Sunday afternoon's main event in "The Windy City". The driver of the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet will look to improve off of a 3rd-place finish in 2023's race.
As for the No. 24 team, William Byron qualified in the 27th position but will start from the rear of the field as the team needed to make repairs after suffering steering issues in qualifying. Byron will look to win his third-career road course race this Sunday on the streets of Chicago.
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Also on track was the No. 17 HendrickCars.com team in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with Larson back behind the wheel. After qualifying on the front row, the regular driver of the No. 5 Cup Series entry battle hard with Shane Van Gisbergen for the top spot, overtaking him on several occasions before relinquishing the lead to the New Zealand born driver. Van Gisbergen would take stage one.
Crew chief Greg Ives opted to leave Larson on the race track to end the opening segment and pit before the end of stage two. Ultimately, a caution flag in this window allowed for both Larson and Van Gisbergen to pit under yellow flag conditions. On the drive back through the field on fresher tires in stage three, Larson made his way up from the 23rd position to the 3rd spot to end the 50-lap main event.
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Tune in on Sunday, July 7 at 4:30 p.m. ET to catch all the Cup Series action from the Chicago Street Course with coverage available on NBC, MRN Radio and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).