NASCAR Cup Series
Starting Lineup: NASCAR Cup Series Food City Dirt Race at Bristol
Apr 8, 2023
Anytime you get Kyle Larson on dirt, you expect something incredible could happen. Well, I don't think we expected the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to do something THAT INCREDIBLE.
In his Qualifier Heat Race on Saturday at Bristol Dirt, Larson amazingly knifed his way from the sixth starting spot to take the lead on lap 1.
Here is a video of the incredible move by Larson on Lap 1 of his Heat Race:
"It's cool I guess," Larson said of running the Bristol Dirt in the NASCAR Cup car. "I didn't expect to go to the lead on the first lap."
Then, as expected, once Larson took the lead, he never looked back as he cruised to the Heat 3 win, and in the process, he banked 15 passing points, which ended up topping the entire field of 37 drivers through the Heat Races.
As a result, Larson will start Sunday's Food City Dirt Race from the pole position.
RELATED: NASCAR Cup Series Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Starting Lineup
While he'll roll from the pole, Larson definitely sees room for improvement on his car heading into Sunday's race.
"[Preece] was quite a bit better than I was. We still have a lot of work to do to make my HendrickCars.com Chevy have some more grip," Larson explained. "I feel like I can't hustle it enough to go faster, I guess. We'll work on it quite a bit. We'll talk about it, and hopefully, be a lot better for tomorrow."
Austin Dillon, who scored the Heat 1 win in the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 on Saturday, will start from the outside pole in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Dirt Race.
Dillon scored the Heat win in an epic battle with his former teammate Tyler Reddick.
"That was a blast racing with Tyler Reddick there," Dillon said with a smile on his face. "We jumped out to an early lead, and its kind of hard. You're a sitting duck out front trying to figure out where they were gaining."
While Larson pulled off the incredible sixth-to-first opening lap of the race, and Dillon scored a Heat win, it was JJ Yeley that pulled off possibly the most unpredictable performance of the day.
The driver of the No. 15 Rick Ware Racing Ford Mustang secured the third starting spot for Sunday's race with an incredible effort in Heat 3. Yeley sliced and diced his way from the ninth starting spot to finish third, which brought his passing points total to 14.
Christopher Bell, Kyle Busch, Tyler Reddick, Austin Cindric, Ryan Preece, Ryan Blaney and William Byron rounded out the top 10 drivers on the starting grid for Sunday's race.
Blaney scored the Heat 2 win.
Bubba Wallace, who won Heat 4, will start from the ninth 11th position.
Photo Credit: Will Bellamy / Racing America
