Joliet, Ill.
It’s the second career pole for Menard, who has just one top-five finish this season. He also qualified first for a race at Daytona almost exactly 10 years ago.
“Ten years, it goes by quick. I feel old now,” the 37-year-old Menard said with a wry grin.
Menard turned a lap at 180.012 mph in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford. He has one career win, taking the 2011 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Ryan Blaney joined Menard on the front row. Blaney was second at 179.880 mph in his No. 12 Team Penske Ford. Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin and Kurt Busch rounded out the top five. Martin Truex Jr., who has won the last two NASCAR Cup Series races at Chicagoland, qualified 12th on Saturday.
Larson Wins Xfinity Race
Joliet, Ill.
“You can look at any track where you can run inches off the wall and I’ll be faster than anybody,” he said. “Once the lap times dropped off enough around the bottom I could move up there and go really fast.”
Riding as high as he could go on the bumpy 1.5-mile oval, Larson passed Harvick with about 60 laps remaining in the 300-mile race. Brandon Jones moved into the top spot when he stayed on the track while the leaders went in for a pit stop, but the caution he needed never materialized and Larson pulled away when Jones finally went into pit road on a really hot day all over the Midwest.
F1: Vettel Sets Austrian Track Record
Spielberg, Austria
The German set a track record of 1 minute, 4.070 seconds to edge Lewis Hamilton’s fastest lap by 0.029, with Valtteri Bottas 0.134 behind in third.
Hamilton and Bottas went 1-2 in both of Friday’s sessions as Mercedes introduced significant changes to the aerodynamics of its cars.
Max Verstappen quit practice with eight minutes left as the engine of his Red Bull suddenly turned off, leaving his team two hours to get the car working again for qualifying later Saturday.
Hamilton will be chasing his 50th pole position in a Mercedes, and 76th overall. Only Michael Schumacher had more pole positions with one team — 58 with Ferrari.