Christopher Bell on pole at Las Vegas
Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images
LAS VEGAS, Nev.—With a blistering lap at 187.156 mph in Saturday’s time trials at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Christopher Bell claimed the pole position for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube (4 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Bell navigated the 1.5-mile intermediate track in 28.853 seconds to beat Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin (186.188 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.150 seconds.
The Busch Light Pole Award was Bell’s first of the season, his fourth at Las Vegas and the 15th of his Cup Series career.
With JGR’s Ty Gibbs qualifying third at 185.803 mph and 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace fourth at 185.771 mph, Toyota swept the top four starting spots in a race for the seventh time in the manufacturer’s history in the Cup Series, with the previous most recent occurrence coming at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last year.
This was the second straight Las Vegas race in which Toyotas have started 1-2-3, with Hamlin, Chase Briscoe and Bell doing the honors in qualifying last fall.
“It was pretty simple, really,” Bell said of his qualifying lap. “It takes a lot of commitment here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to qualify well. My team got their Ps and Qs right. We had a lot of grip, and I held my foot down, and we won the pole.”
Bell’s car seemed unbothered by the troublesome Turn 1 bumps that upset the efforts of more than a few other competitors.
“It’s a compromise,” Bell explained. “Every time you come to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, it’s a compromise of getting your car to have as much grip as you can have in (Turns) 3 and 4 without the bump hindering you in (Turns) 1 and 2.
“Anytime you make the car drive better across the bumps, you’re giving up performance on the smooth part of the race track, and my team nailed it.”
Reigning series champion Kyle Larson (185.548 mph) qualified fifth in the fastest Chevrolet, with Phoenix winner Ryan Blaney (185.185 mph) claiming the sixth spot on the grid in the top Ford.
Series leader Tyler Reddick, winner of the first three races this season, will start seventh, followed by Ryan Preece, William Byron and Chris Buescher.
Defending race winner Josh Berry qualified 32nd in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford.
Starting Line Up by Row
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube
Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 3/14/2026 @ 04:25 PM Eastern
Driver Date Time Speed
Track Race Record: Joey Logano 03/03/19 2:35:11 154.849
Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed
Row 1: 1 20 Christopher Bell Interstate Batteries Toyota 28.853 187.156
2 11 Denny Hamlin Yahoo! Toyota 29.003 186.188
Row 2: 3 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 29.063 185.803
4 23 Bubba Wallace Xfinity Toyota 29.068 185.771
Row 3: 5 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 29.103 185.548
6 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Pennzoil Ford 29.160 185.185
Row 4: 7 45 Tyler Reddick Jordan Brand Toyota 29.168 185.134
8 60 Ryan Preece Body Guard Ford 29.205 184.900
Row 5: 9 24 William Byron Raptor Chevrolet 29.217 184.824
10 17 Chris Buescher Smith's/Farm Rich Ford 29.245 184.647
Row 6: 11 3 Austin Dillon Breztri Chevrolet 29.250 184.615
12 38 Zane Smith Aaron's Rent To Own Ford 29.252 184.603
Row 7: 13 7 Daniel Suarez Freeway Insurance Chevrolet 29.279 184.433
14 43 Erik Jones Dollar Tree Toyota 29.285 184.395
Row 8: 15 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 29.289 184.370
16 97 Shane Van Gisbergen SuperFile Chevrolet 29.294 184.338
Row 9: 17 1 Ross Chastain Kubota Chevrolet 29.338 184.062
18 19 Chase Briscoe Bass Pro Shops Toyota 29.343 184.030
Row 10: 19 77 Carson Hocevar Chili's Ride the 'Dente Chevrolet 29.356 183.949
20 35 Riley Herbst FRE Nicotine Pouches Toyota 29.363 183.905
Row 11: 21 22 Joey Logano Pennzoil Ultra Premium Ford 29.376 183.824
22 48 Justin Allgaier(i) Ally Chevrolet 29.376 183.824
Row 12: 23 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. NOS Energy Chevrolet 29.387 183.755
24 8 Kyle Busch Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet 29.455 183.331
Row 13: 25 88 Connor Zilisch # Jockey 150th Anniversary Chevrolet 29.478 183.187
26 42 John Hunter Nemechek TriState Vacuum & Rental LLC Toyota 29.493 183.094
Row 14: 27 34 Todd Gilliland Love's Travel Stops Ford 29.493 183.094
28 6 Brad Keselowski Trimble Ford 29.504 183.026
Row 15: 29 16 AJ Allmendinger U-Save Chevrolet 29.530 182.865
30 71 Michael McDowell Workforce Chevrolet 29.652 182.113
Row 16: 31 2 Austin Cindric Discount Tire Ford 29.690 181.879
32 21 Josh Berry Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford 29.745 181.543
Row 17: 33 51 Cody Ware Yeego Chevrolet 29.770 181.391
34 4 Noah Gragson Curate Ford 30.059 179.647
Row 18: 35 41 Cole Custer HaasTooling.com Chevrolet 30.250 178.512
36 10 Ty Dillon Campers Inn RV/U-Save Chevrolet 30.607 176.430
Did Not Qualify: None.
Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs
Chevrolet 17 0 Ford 10 0
Toyota 9 0
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
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