Back again in the Xfinity Series, Kyle Larson wins the pole award and does it in a track record for the series at COTA. This is the fourth season NASCAR has raced at COTA and the lap times just keep getting faster every year.
Kyle Larson was solid in practice and both qualifying rounds. He likes to race these road courses in the Xfinity Series for extra track time. Larson last won a pole award in the series last season at Sonoma on his way to a P3 finish in the race.
Larson will try to win from the pole tomorrow night but it won’t be easy. There is a ton of talent in this race and the top of that list is the driver who will share the front row with him, Shane van Gisbergen. This is going to be a race you don’t want to miss, folks.
2:12.08 is the lap time it took to win the pole and break the track record previously held by Ty Gibbs.
This is the seventh time in Kyle Larson’s career he has won the Xfinity Series pole. Larson will be battling with SVG, Ty Gibbs, AJ Allmendinger, and others on Saturday. It is shaping up to be one of the more exciting races of the season, if you ask me.
So, will we see Larson dominate on Saturday? Or will the road course specialists get the best of him? The best part of this is that we get to see these drivers do it again on Sunday. Should be a fun weekend of road course racing in NASCAR.
Kyle Larson, Connor Zilisch set track records
The thing that makes Kyle Larson’s track record so cool, 17-year-old Connor Zilisch did the same thing in the Truck Series about an hour before. In one of the more dominant Truck Series debuts we have seen in practice and qualifying, Zilisch put the field on notice.
In the first round of Truck Series qualifying, Zilisch ran a 2:12.08 lap. That is the same exact time as Larson in the Xfinity Series! But, he didn’t stop there. Moving onto the final round, Zilisch put down a blistering lap.
Zilisch in his first time ever in the Truck Series, ran a 2:11.98 lap. This means the tailgaters have a faster record than Xfinity. Of course, they both fall short of the Cup Series record of 2:10.305 set by Tyler Reddick last season.
For what it’s worth, both Kyle Larson and Connor Zilisch would have made the top-6 in Cup Series qualifying in 2023 with their lap times from today. With more NASCAR races on this track, those times will continue to fall. Will our pole winners drive all the way to the checkered flag tomorrow?
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