NASCAR News: Christopher Bell wins Cup pole in Kansas

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell held off Ross Chastain (182.704 mph) and Noah Gragson (182.451 mph) to score his 11th career Busch Light Pole Award at Kansas Speedway, with a speed of 183.107 mph.

Kyle Larson (182.383 mph) and Kyle Busch (182.070 mph) rounded out the top five.

The Busch Light Pole Award is Bell’s first of the season, his third at the 1.5-mile track and the 11th of his career, all coming since NASCAR introduced the Next Gen car into the Cup Series in 2022.

Even as he accepted congratulations for his pole-winning effort, however, Bell was already looking ahead to Sunday’s race, the series’ 12th of the season.

“I love the high-speed places, the places where you’re on the verge of being wide-open or not being wide-open, and the intermediates have been really good for us,” said Bell, who has more poles in the Next Gen era than any other driver.

Since winning the third race of the season at Phoenix Raceway in March, however, Bell and his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team have suffered a litany of misfortunes. In his last four starts, Bell has posted a best finish of 17th at Texas Motor Speedway and three results of 34th or worse.

“Honestly, at this point, I’m not looking for a race win, guys,” said Bell, who described his 34th-place run last Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway as “the bottom of the barrel.”

“I’m just looking to see the checkered flag. I know my car has great capability, and if I just see the checkered flag with a clean car, we’re going to have a good, solid day, and that’s definitely what we’re after tomorrow.”

Ford driver Noah Gragson (182.451 mph) qualified third, sustaining the momentum from a pair of top-10 performances at Talladega Superspeedway and Dover. Kyle Larson was fourth fastest at 182.383 mph, followed by Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs and Austin Cindric.

Michael McDowell, Chase Elliott and Chase Briscoe will start from positions eighth through 10th, respectively.

Qualifying Results