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For the second week in a row, a young NASCAR Cup Series driver will start Sunday from the very front of the field. This time it's Christopher Bell, who finally earned his first career pole on Saturday after two years of waiting.

Bell won the pole for Sunday's Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, laying down a lap of 29.561 seconds (182.673 MPH) to earn the pole by over a tenth on Kyle Larson. Bell's pole marks his first in his 75th Cup start, though it should be noted that he and the rest of the field had few opportunities to qualify in 2020 and 2021.

Compared to last week at Auto Club Speedway, Saturday's practice and qualifying session was relatively tame with one notable exception. Early in practice, Kyle Busch's car suffered a left rear tire failure entering Turn 3, where it spun around and backed into the outside wall. Busch was forced to a backup car, and he will start Sunday's race from the rear of the field after not posting a qualifying time.

Five teams had issues in pre-qualifying tech inspection, with Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Harrison Burton, Todd Gilliland, and Josh Bilicki's cars all failing inspection twice. As a result, all teams have had a crew member ejected and will lose pit stall selection for Sunday's race. Harvick, Elliott, Burton, and Gilliland all lost their car chiefs, while Bilicki's team lost an engineer.

Pennzoil 400 starting lineup

1 - #20 - Christopher Bell
2 - #5 - Kyle Larson
3 - #2 - Austin Cindric (R)
4 - #14 - Chase Briscoe
5 - #9 - Chase Elliott
6 - #22 - Joey Logano
7 - #8 - Tyler Reddick
8 - #11 - Denny Hamlin
9 - #47 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
10 - #3 - Austin Dillon
11 - #12 - Ryan Blaney
12 - #19 - Martin Truex Jr.
13 - #48 - Alex Bowman
14 - #24 - William Byron
15 - #6 - Brad Keselowski
16 - #16 - Daniel Hemric
17 - #23 - Bubba Wallace
18 - #1 - Ross Chastain
19 - #21 - Harrison Burton (R)
20 - #10 - Aric Almirola
21 - #99 - Daniel Suarez
22 - #34 - Michael McDowell
23 - #43 - Erik Jones
24 - #41 - Cole Custer
25 - #4 - Kevin Harvick
26 - #44 - Greg Biffle
27 - #17 - Chris Buescher
28 - #31 - Justin Haley
29 - #7 - Corey LaJoie
30 - #38 - Todd Gilliland (R)
31 - #45 - Kurt Busch
32 - #42 - Ty Dillon
33 - #51 - Cody Ware
34 - #77 - Josh Bilicki
35 - #78 - B.J. McLeod
36 - #15 - Garrett Smithley
37 - #18 - Kyle Busch