With a record lap in Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 qualifying on Saturday, Kyle Larson assured himself another front row starting position this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The 127.988 mph lap broke the previous track qualifying record of 127.903 established by Erik Jones the last time the NASCAR XFINITY Series visited the high-banked half-mile track.
Jones is the defending race winner and qualified fourth Saturday behind Austin Dillon and rookie Cole Custer. Series points leader Elliott Sadler will start 17th.
The pole was Larson's second in 95 career XFINITY Series starts - his first came in this race three years ago - and second in as many days.
NASCAR adjusted Friday's schedule to provide teams maximum practice time and the lineup for Sunday's Food City 500 was set according to the rulebook. Larson leads the NASCAR Cup Series driver standings and his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing team leads the owner's standings.
The Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 represents the second Dash 4 Cash races this season. As such, the top two full-time XFINITY Series finishers in the first two 85-lap stages of the race qualify for the bonus program. The highest finisher among the four Dash 4 Cash drivers in the 130-lap final stage wins an extra $100,000.
If a driver wins all four Dash 4 Cash prizes, XFINITY awards an additional $600,000 bonus. Justin Allgaier collected the first $100,000 bonus earlier this season at Phoenix and qualified fifth for Saturday's race, which is the first XFINITY race on a short track using the new stage format.
"It's going to be a different way of racing, but I really do think this is going to be an incredible at the stage ends," he said. "Especially, too, adding the Dash 4 Cash into it….It's going to be all-out war."
The Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 is scheduled to start at 1:03 p.m. and span 300 laps.
