Kyle Larson Wins Pole for 2026 Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray

Mother Nature tried (on several occasions) to prevent the Cook Out Clash from happening this season, but with some incredible persistence from the sanctioning body, the NASCAR Cup Series finally hit the racetrack on Wednesday at Bowman Gray Stadium.

Defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson didn’t waste any time in picking up where he left off last November, winning the pole for the pre-season exhibition event in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, driving his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

With a stout lap time of 14.137 seconds (63.663mph), Larson was able to get around the quarter-mile oval the quickest of the 38 drivers on the premises, albeit just barely over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron.

“It’ll be fun to get to be a fan and watch [the Last Chance Qualifier] because that was a really stressful race,” Larson said. “Caught a bit off guard there, I was not expecting to get the pole, and we have lap times on our dash, and I never saw anything close to a [14.13] on my dash, the closest I saw was a [14.23], so I was like, at least I’m in the show, but it wasn’t very good.”

No LCQ for Kyle Larson this year at Bowman Gray Stadium. pic.twitter.com/WzN7rFBFHT

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 4, 2026

Byron, who was also in the final six-driver grouping during qualifying, went shot-for-shot with Larson during the four-minute session, but came up just four-thousandths of a second short of securing the pole. In fact, the entire session was extremely tight, with 37 of 38 drivers within four-tenths of a second.

Burt Myers, driving the No. 50 Tibbetts Lumber Chevrolet for Team AmeriVet, was the only driver more than a half-second off the pole-winning pace and will start from the tail-end of the field in the 75-lap Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) coming up later this afternoon.

Ty Gibbs put up an impressive effort in qualifying, despite having to go in an earlier group, and will start from the inside of the second row for Wednesday’s main event. Gibbs led his three Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, and Denny Hamlin, in qualifying, who all managed to qualify in lockstep and occupy positions four through six.

Bubba Wallace qualified seventh for 23XI Racing, and despite starting at the back-half of the top-10, was still only 0.016 seconds off the pole-winning time by Larson. Chris Buescher was eighth fastest in qualifying, with Ross Chastain and Tyler Reddick rounding out the top-10.

With the chaos surrounding the historic winter weather system that hit North Carolina this past weekend, NASCAR decided to cancel the heat races, meaning the fastest 20 drivers from this qualifying session will automatically lock themselves into the main event.

Defending Cook Out Clash winner Chase Elliott was 11th-fastest and locked himself into the show, along with Carson Hocevar, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Austin Dillon, Ryan Blaney, Shane Van Gisbergen, Ryan Preece, Connor Zilisch, and Daniel Suarez.

Josh Berry and Michael McDowell were 21st and 22nd quickest in qualifying, and will lead the field to green in the Last Chance Qualifier. Other notables in the LCQ include Austin Cindric, Corey LaJoie, Alex Bowman, AJ Allmendinger, and Noah Gragson.

Alex Bowman is also guaranteed a spot in the Cook Out Clash for Wednesday, courtesy of his points position from last season (12th). That will earn him the provisional, should he choose to race in the LCQ and not advance. Austin Cindric would be next in line should Bowman lock himself in through the Last Chance Qualifier.

The Last Chance Qualifier will take place on Wednesday, February 4 at 4:30 PM on FOX, with the Cook Out Clash happening at 6:00 PM, also on FOX.

QUALIFYING RESULTS: