Christopher Bell has won the pole for the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway, laying down a lap of 30.071 (179.575 MPH) to beat Tyler Reddick for the top starting spot. Bell's pole is his third of the 2022 season, following up on poles earlier this year at Las Vegas and Talladega.
Bell was a good deal faster than the competition throughout time trials, as his lap of record in Group B was nearly three full tenths faster than Alex Bowman. Although the rest of the top five qualifiers in the final round picked up to within nearly a tenth, Bell was still able to outpace them with a lap that was nearly 30 seconds flat.
Qualifying was fairly uneventful in comparison to practice, which featured an usually high number of left rear tire failures. Chris Buescher, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and last week's winner Joey Logano all spun and crashed after tire failures, and Cody Ware also spun while not hitting anything. Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin also had left rear tires go down, but both were able to make it back to their pit stalls without incident.
Now @joeylogano goes around and into the wall! pic.twitter.com/dhxIlH0c6K
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) May 14, 2022
Logano and Buescher will both go to backup cars, while Ricky Stenhouse's team will fix the damage to their primary car. According to Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports, Denny Hamlin's team opted to repair damage to their rear diffuser, which means he will have to drop to the rear of the field before the start.
Logano's crash compounded his team's pre-qualifying troubles, as his car failed tech inspection twice, leading to loss of pit selection and the ejection of a crewmember. Justin Haley's team also failed inspection twice and received the same penalty.
AdventHealth 400 starting lineup
- #20 - Christopher Bell
- #8 - Tyler Reddick
- #5 - Kyle Larson
- #2 - Austin Cindric (R)
- #45 - Kurt Busch
- #18 - Kyle Busch
- #10 - Aric Almirola
- #48 - Alex Bowman
- #19 - Martin Truex Jr.
- #12 - Ryan Blaney
- #1 - Ross Chastain
- #14 - Chase Briscoe
- #24 - William Byron
- #9 - Chase Elliott
- #31 - Justin Haley
- #41 - Cole Custer
- #42 - Ty Dillon
- #11 - Denny Hamlin
- #99 - Daniel Suarez
- #7 - Corey LaJoie
- #3 - Austin Dillon
- #43 - Erik Jones
- #4 - Kevin Harvick
- #23 - Bubba Wallace
- #34 - Michael McDowell
- #21 - Harrison Burton (R)
- #15 - J.J. Yeley
- #16 - Noah Gragson
- #51 - Cody Ware
- #38 - Todd Gilliland (R)
- #6 - Brad Keselowski
- #78 - B.J. McLeod
- #77 - Josh Bilicki
- #22 - Joey Logano
- #17 - Chris Buescher
- #47 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr.