Christopher Bell and Joe Gibbs Racing have apparently found the secret formula to qualifying well on the mile-and-a-half racetracks in the NASCAR Cup Series, earning the pole for Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The 29-year-old driver notched his third pole position of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series campaign on Sunday, posting a lap time of 29.135 seconds (185.344mph) to top the speed charts in single-vehicle qualifying from The Sin City.
It’s the third pole position for Bell at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in what will be his tenth start at the racetrack come Sunday. It’s his seventh pole at an intermediate facility, with four also coming at Kansas Speedway — including one to start the Round of 12 last month.
For the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, it’s his 13th pole in the NASCAR Cup Series.
“I feel really good,” Bell said after qualifying. “I feel really comfortable, in practice, I don’t think the pace showed what we had, but inside the car, I felt super, super comfortable, I know that we’re going to have a shot at it tomorrow.”
Tyler Reddick, the regular-season champion and a fellow post-season contender, will start alongside Bell in Sunday’s 400-mile contest. Alex Bowman, who had a devastating week after being eliminated from the Playoffs due to an inspection failure, will start in third.
Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson rounded out the top five in Saturday’s qualifying. Rookie driver Carson Hocevar will start sixth, with Ross Chastain, Ty Gibbs, William Byron, and Joey Logano completing the top-10.
STARTING LINEUP: 2024 NCS South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Of the eight drivers still eligible for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, six advanced into the final round of Saturday’s single-vehicle qualifying session from Las Vegas.
The two drivers who failed to accomplish that feat were NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver Chase Elliott, who will start Sunday’s South Point 400 from the 18th position, and defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney.
Blaney, piloting the No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Team Penske, will start from dead-last on the starting grid (37th) on Sunday, after an issue early in practice.
The 30-year-old driver was on his second lap in Saturday’s 20-minute practice session, when a left-rear tire went flat on his Team Penske machine, sending him hard into the outside wall in Turn 1.
After the accident, Blaney was checked and released from the infield care center — despite radioing to his team that his head hurt after the accident took place. The No. 12 will start back in a backup car.
Blaney enters Sunday’s semi-final round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs sitting fifth in points, four points below the cutline. Last season, this three-race stretch was where he made his surge, but he’ll have a ton of work to do to accomplish that again.
The South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will occur on Sunday, October 20th at 2:30 PM ET. Coverage of the event will take place on NBC, the Performance Racing Network (PRN), and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).
