Before Saturday’s qualifying at Martinsville Speedway, Christopher Bell was pretty adamant that he wouldn’t be a factor for the pole, due to his early draw in the single-vehicle session.
As the 17th driver to post a lap around the half-mile paperclip, Bell took his No. 20 DeWalt Tools Toyota Camry XSE onto the racetrack and posted a quick time, laying down a 19.718-second lap (96.034mph) to shoot to the top of the speed charts.
Throughout the qualifying session, many heavy-hitters in the 38-car field for Sunday’s Cook Out 400 posted a lap time, but couldn’t quite match that of the Norman, Oklahoma-native.
STARTING LINEUP: Cook Out 400 at Martinsville
When Kyle Larson, the 38th and final driver to take time, finished his qualifying run, it was still Bell at the top of the speed charts, awarding him the pole position for the 400-lap contest.
“I was kind of down in the dumps after practice, but that was definitely the best qualifying session I’ve ever felt out of my car here at Martinsville, it was just easy, I don’t know. I’ve been really good at qualifying in the 20s, and the car had so much grip. I just cut a really good lap.”
Chase Elliott was the closest to knocking Bell off the pole position, coming up less than two hundredths of a second short of the eventual polesitter, and settling for an outside-pole result.
Alex Bowman, last weekend’s polesitter at Homestead, qualified third for Sunday’s event, with his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson just behind him in fourth.
Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-five, which puts two of NASCAR’s most successful teams — Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports — sweeping each of the first five positions in qualifying.
Chris Buescher will roll from sixth on Sunday, with Joey Logano, Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick, and William Byron all inside the top-10.
Wallace, driving the No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota Camry XSE for 23XI Racing, was the quickest in NASCAR Cup Series practice for the second straight weekend.
Other notable drivers who qualify outside of the top-10 include Chase Briscoe (11th), Kyle Busch (12th), Josh Berry (14th), Ross Chastain (17th), Austin Cindric (20th), Brad Keselowski (27th), and Ryan Blaney (32nd).
Casey Mears and Burt Myers, the only two open entries in the NASCAR Cup Series field this weekend at Martinsville, will start from 37th and 38th, driving for MBM Motorsports and Team AmeriVet.
The only significant issue during practice and qualifying on Saturday was for Justin Haley, who had the hood on his No. 7 Gainbridge Chevrolet impede his vision while running in practice.
Haley and Spire Motorsports assessed the damage and qualified 30th.
The Cook Out 400 will take place on Sunday, March 30 at 3:00 PM ET on FS1, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
