Christopher Bell Cruises to Pole Position at Kansas

The stars of the NASCAR Cup Series are in Kansas this weekend for one of the more exciting events on the schedule. Kansas Speedway has produced some great racing in recent years, and tomorrow's 267-lap event should offer more of the same. Qualifying for the AdventHealth 400 concluded this evening with a familiar face earning pole position.

Christopher Bell continued his sensational season of qualifying, as he put his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on pole for the third time this year. Bell, who was fastest in Group B qualifying in Round 1, was the last of ten cars to make an attempt in the final round of qualifying.

“These guys are just doing a really good job on this No. 20 car, they have been all year long,” Bell said. “I’m really proud of the effort. We have an excellent Camry here this weekend so hopefully we can keep it up tomorrow.” Bell's best finish at Kansas in four starts was his 8th place result last Fall.

“We have everything we need to win the races, that is for sure,” Bell stated. “Our cars are super-fast. I feel like I’ve been driving pretty well, especially the last couple of weeks specifically. We just have to maintain our track position.”

Joining Bell on the front row tomorrow will be Tyler Reddick, who was one of the fastest drivers in practice. Reigning series champion Kyle Larson and Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric will start from Row 2 tomorrow. The Busch brothers (Kurt and Kyle) will share Row 3 while Aric Almirola, Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr, and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top ten in qualifying today.

The main storyline from today was the left-rear tire blowouts. More than a handful of drivers had trouble keeping their car off the wall because of flat tires. Denny Hamlin, Cody Ware, and Blaney all had tires go down but were able to save their cars. Chris Buescher, Joey Logano, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr all made significant contact during practice, and were unable to make a qualifying attempt.

The RFK Racing team ultimately elected to go to a backup car for Buescher. “I started feeling a vibration, tried to slow down and didn’t get it knocked down in time. It’s a pretty big shame for our Castrol GTX Mustang to be sitting on wreckers like that. It’s going to be a long night.”

Logano was hoping to carry over the momentum from last week's win at Darlington, but their incident poured cold water on that idea. “As soon as I turned down off into the corner, I could feel it shaking and I knew it was bad,” Logano said. “It just swaps ends so fast when the left-rear blows out. We’ll be alright and we’ll fight through it. If we keep the tires on it, I guess we’ll be alright.”

Qualifying up front can be more important at some tracks, and Kansas is definitely one of them. Historically speaking, drivers starting outside of the top ten have struggled to find Victory Lane here. Five of the last six Kansas races were won by a driver starting inside the top ten. In the last 12 races, a car starting beyond Row 5 has only won the race three times.

Kansas also seems to have a knack for producing a nice variation of winners. The last nine races were won by eight different drivers. Larson had a dominant 3.619-second win last Fall but the seven races prior to that had a combined margin of victory of 2.784 seconds. The Next Gen car could produce even more drama on Sunday.

Kansas used to be one of Kyle Busch's worst tracks, but now it is ironically one of his best. In his first 14 starts here, he recorded two top-tens and no top-fives. Kyle’s last 14 races on the 1.5-mile oval include 11 top-tens, nine top-fives, and two race wins. He enters the weekend as the defending race winner.

"It’s a place where we’ve really picked it up," Busch said. "We seemed to have gotten a setup or ahold of that place, and I feel like our cars keep getting better over the last few races. I’m hoping we can continue our strong runs and have a shot to win there again."

The previous two races on 1.5-mile intermediate speedways were both won by Hendrick Motorsports. Alex Bowman (Las Vegas) and William Byron (Atlanta) will be aiming for another one tomorrow. Byron was the victim of Logano's "bump and run" last weekend at Darlington, but has put that in the rear view mirror. The 24-year old is looking forward to race day at Kansas.

"While most of these tracks this year we’ve had to relearn because of the Next Gen car, I think I’m a bit more confident heading to Kansas," said Byron. "I feel like Kansas and Las Vegas are the most similar to each other. The only real difference is I feel like Kansas is a more temperature-sensitive race track and has less grip. We’ve run well at Kansas over the last couple years, so I think with the notebook we’ve built so far and our past experiences there, we should have a good shot."

Logano, Hamlin, and Kevin Harvick all have three wins at Kansas but have not been particularly strong this season. Joey was able to snap his winless streak last weekend with a desperation move, but is hopeful that the win will turn their season around. Hamlin has won two of the last five races at Kansas but his luck has been downright scary this year.

Tomorrow's race will be the last points-paying event before the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day Weekend. The All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway takes place next weekend. Coverage for the AdventHealth 400 begins at 3 PM ET on FS1.