Kyle Larson, Riley Herbst lead Cup, Xfinity Charlotte qualifying

Kyle Larson was the fastest in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying for the next day’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, while Riley Herbst has enjoyed a dominant pre-race weekend as he led Xfinity Series qualifying a day after doing the same in practice.

Larson set a fastest lap time of 29.953 seconds at 180.282 mph to beat Ricky Stenhouse Jr. by a Bond-esque .007 in both categories. It is Larson’s ninth career earned Cup pole, his first since Sonoma in 2019 (though he sat out much of 2020 due to suspension and most races since have been non-qualifying events), and his first on a 1.5-mile track. All but two of his poles (Auto Club and Michigan in 2017) have come on non-traditional oval tracks. Prior to the pole, he had never started higher than ninth at Charlotte (2015).

For Stenhouse, he records his fourth front-row start at a 1.5-miler and his first since the 2019 Atlanta spring race. His previous best at Charlotte was third in 2016.

Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports team-mates Chase Elliott and William Byron make up the second row, while the fourth driver Alex Bowman was seventh. Austin Dillon, who led Friday Cup practice, was sixth. David Starr qualified thirty-eighth and last for his first Cup start of the year.

At the Xfinity level, where the Alsco Uniforms 300 is held later in the day, Herbst led a Ford front row with a time of 29.350 seconds at 183.986 mph for his first career pole. His previous best was fourth in the season opener at Daytona, while he started on the pole at Richmond in 2019 after qualifying was rained out.

Chase Briscoe, who won an Xfinity Series-high nine races in 2020 in Herbst’s #98 Stewart-Haas Racing ride, qualified second in his return to the series; his run marked B.J. McLeod Motorsports‘s first top-two start, with the team’s previous best qualifying effort being twelfth by Briscoe’s Cup team-mate Kevin Harvick the previous week at COTA.

McLeod’s newly introduced #76 car driven by Stefan Parsons qualified twenty-first. Camping World Truck Series veteran Grant Enfinger, who finished fourteenth in Friday’s race, made the field via owner points and will begin his Xfinity début in thirty-fifth; Enfinger was tasked with the #26 Sam Hunt Racing Toyota as the original driver Brandon Gdovic, who has not raced at a 1.5-miler since 2015, expressed doubt that he could qualify on time.

Despite his team’s strong performances in the session, McLeod was not as fortunate as he failed to qualify in DGM Racing’s #90. Joining him in missing the race are Starr, Dillon Bassett, Kyle Weatherman, Joe Graf Jr., Gray Gaulding, and Bayley Currey.

Cup qualifying results

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Best Time	Best Speed (mph)
1	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	29.953	180.282
2	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	29.960	180.240
3	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	29.969	180.186
4	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	29.970	180.180
5	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	29.993	180.042
6	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	30.029	179.826
7	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	30.045	179.730
8	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	30.064	179.617
9	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	30.069	179.587
10	42	Ross Chastain	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	30.072	179.569
11	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	30.090	179.462
12	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	30.090	179.462
13	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	30.111	179.336
14	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	30.112	179.330
15	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	30.143	179.146
16	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	30.146	179.128
17	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	30.159	179.051
18	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	30.207	178.767
19	43	Erik Jones	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet	30.231	178.625
20	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	30.241	178.566
21	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	30.270	178.394
22	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	30.274	178.371
23	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	30.298	178.230
24	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	30.323	178.083
25	6	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	30.325	178.071
26	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	30.330	178.042
27	17	Chris Buescher	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	30.336	178.006
28	37	Ryan Preece	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	30.402	177.620
29	38	Anthony Alfredo	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	30.415	177.544
30	77	Justin Haley*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	30.708	175.850
31	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	30.834	175.131
32	00	Quin Houff	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet	30.939	174.537
33	78	B.J. McLeod*	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	30.952	174.464
34	53	Cody Ware*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	30.971	174.357
35	15	James Davison	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	31.493	171.467
36	51	Garrett Smithley*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	31.499	171.434
37	52	Josh Bilicki	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	31.569	171.054
38	66	David Starr*	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	33.071	163.285

Xfinity

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Best Time	Best Speed (mph)
1	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	29.350	183.986
2	99	Chase Briscoe*	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Ford	29.727	181.653
3	18	Daniel Hemric	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	29.814	181.123
4	22	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	29.855	180.874
5	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	30.068	179.593
6	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	30.097	179.420
7	2	Myatt Snider	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	30.113	179.325
8	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	30.127	179.241
9	10	Jeb Burton	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	30.173	178.968
10	23	Ty Dillon	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	30.207	178.767
11	11	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	30.260	178.453
12	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	30.286	178.300
13	20	Harrison Burton	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	30.291	178.271
14	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	30.304	178.194
15	02	Brett Moffitt	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	30.317	178.118
16	31	Tyler Reddick*	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	30.374	177.784
17	0	Jeffrey Earnhardt	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	30.380	177.749
18	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	30.383	177.731
19	1	Michael Annett	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	30.465	177.253
20	4	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	30.523	176.916
21	76	Stefan Parsons	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	30.524	176.910
22	13	Chad Finchum	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	30.525	176.904
23	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	30.527	176.893
24	5	Matt Mills	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	30.646	176.206
25	48	Jade Buford	Big Machine Racing	Chevrolet	30.665	176.097
26	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	30.700	175.896
27	44	Tommy Joe Martins	Martins Motorsports	Chevrolet	30.727	175.741
28	6	Landon Cassill	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	30.731	175.718
29	15	Colby Howard	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	30.797	175.342
30	78	Jesse Little	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Toyota	30.824	175.188
31	17	Cody Ware	SS-Green Light Racing	Toyota	30.827	175.171
32	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	Owner Points	Owner Points
33	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	Owner Points	Owner Points
34	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	Owner Points	Owner Points
35	26	Grant Enfinger*	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	Owner Points	Owner Points
36	66	Timmy Hill*	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	Owner Points	Owner Points