Context:

The NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway is set to begin with Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher starting side-by-side, mirroring the dramatic finish of last year's race. Larson secured the pole position narrowly over Buescher by 0.057 seconds, a significant difference compared to Larson's record-setting victory margin of 0.001 seconds in the previous year. The qualifying session was eventful, with drivers like Josh Berry and Kyle Busch making contact with the wall, while others faced the challenge of maintaining speed without crashing. Goodyear introduced a softer left-side tire for the season, which teams were adjusting to, causing several drivers to experience issues during practice. Despite these challenges, Larson expressed delight in securing his first pole at Kansas and looked forward to receiving the coveted pedal car trophy for his children.

Dive Deeper:

• The NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway will start with Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher in the front row, reminiscent of their close finish in the previous year's race, where Larson won by a mere 0.001 seconds.

• Kyle Larson's pole position was secured by a margin of 0.057 seconds over Chris Buescher, highlighting the competitive nature of the qualifying session and the irony of the starting lineup replicating the end of last year's race.

• The qualifying session saw drivers like Josh Berry and Kyle Busch making contact with the walls, while Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace also had close calls, illustrating the challenge of maintaining control while pushing the limits of speed on fresh tires.

• Goodyear introduced a new softer left-side tire for intermediate tracks, which teams are still adjusting to, leading to practice issues for drivers such as Brad Keselowski, Ty Gibbs, Shane Van Gisbergen, and Chase Briscoe.

• Larson's achievement of securing his 22nd career pole and his first at Kansas was particularly meaningful as he expressed excitement over receiving a pedal car trophy, something he has long desired, especially for his children.

• Teams are adapting to the new tire setup, with Goodyear recommending a minimum PSI of 22, though many teams lower it to optimize speed, which has resulted in some teams experiencing tire-related issues during practice sessions.

• Despite the challenges faced during practice and qualifying, drivers are optimistic about their race setups, with Zane Smith and others expressing confidence in their cars' performance and long-run pace.

• The NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway on Sunday is going to begin the same way this race ended last year with Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher side-by-side coming to the flag.

• One year later, Larson won the pole over Buescher by just 0.057 seconds, which was actually much greater than his record setting margin of victory in the AdventHealth 400 last year, which was 0.001 of a second.

• “It’s definitely ironic and really cool,” Larson said in his post qualifying press conference. “It adds to the storyline of what happened last year and builds some anticipation for the race tomorrow. But I won’t be like thinking about when we’re rolling around under caution but it is ironic, funny and cool at the same time.”

• The irony wasn’t lost on Buescher either.

• “We couldn’t have manufactured a better story if we tried, could we? That was a really awesome lap for this Ford Mustang,” said Buescher. “I'm proud of this group. Practice was really solid and Texas last week was awesome so we came into here with a lot of high hopes and it's really showing up already. Missed it by that much, but we're in a good spot and that will put us in clean air for the start of this race at a track we've been really good at.”

• This was the 22nd career pole at the highest level of NASCAR for Larson but his first at Kansas, meaning he gets a trophy that he’s long coveted, but especially now with three kids.

• The pedal car.

• Finally got the pedal car! P1 tomorrow @kansasspeedway pic.twitter.com/jel0sdvOCc

• — Kyle Larson (@KyleLarsonRacin) May 10, 2025 “I hope they still give out that pedal car because that's what I've always wanted,” Larson said after climbing out of the car on the Prime Video broadcast. “Especially with having some kids so I hope that's still a thing.”

• Indeed it was.

• Eventful qualifying session

  Josh Berry and Kyle Busch both made contact with the wall, leaving them 35th and 38th in the rundown.

• Hold on! 😬 pic.twitter.com/vIXncbvbyN

• — NASCAR (@NASCAR) May 10, 2025 The track is still close to full throttle in qualifying on fresh tires but finding just how much to lift was the key to the session.

• In #BuschLightPole qualifying, you NEED to commit to the throttle. pic.twitter.com/VsZvZd9jiN

• — NASCAR (@NASCAR) May 10, 2025 Denny Hamlin didn’t get the wall but also drifted up against it before lifting and Bubba Wallace had a similar experience.

• The challenge was articulated well by Larson during his post session press conference.

• “You’re watching (telemetry data) and you can tell drivers are starting to hold it wide open in 1 and 2 but some guys were getting tight in 3 and 4,” Buescher said. “Buescher was able to run a good 3 and 4 so I kind of had a plan on where I wanted to run and just tried to match it with the throttle and fortunately everything felt good, and the balance was good … a perfect feeling lap.”

• Eventful practice session

  First, some backstory, in that Goodyear has delivered to the industry a softer left side tire for intermediate tracks this year that have already been raced on at Las Vegas, Darlington, Texas and now Kansas.

• NASCAR Cup teams are getting ready to practice/qualify at @kansasspeedway. They are on the same RS they ran here last year, with a different LS (compound change for more wear and laptime falloff). Cup teams have 1 set of tires for practice and 1 set for qualifying.

• — Goodyear Racing (@GoodyearRacing) May 10, 2025 But this was the first time for teams to dial in there set ups on this tire combination at Kansas and it bit several teams in the first group of practice, a session that is split into the groupings. Goodyear recommended a PSI of 22 but teams go as low as they go to maximize speed without failure.

• Brad Keselowski, Ty Gibbs, Shane Van Gisbergen and Chase Briscoe all had issues on that front in practice.

• Fortunately for each, none of them had significant damage, beyond whatever rubbed when the car dragged on the surface while getting back to pit road.

• Keselowski said the warning the tire gave him prevented that from being worse.

• “I was going through [Turns] 3 and 4, and it felt a little soft. Thankfully it did give me a warning, so I didn’t spin out and crash,” said Keselowski. “We’re just all pushing the cars to the limit. I didn’t think we were going to be that close, but we’ll work on it and get it better for Sunday.”

• Zane Smith had a right rear.

• “We saw the issues in the first group, and then I thought we were safe on the pressures we were running, and then, out of nowhere, blew a right rear in the middle of [Turns] 3 and 4, and it unfortunately tagged the fence,” Smith said. “Just a spot bad for that to happen. Before that happened, though, an unbelievably fast Horizon Hobby Ford. I feel really good about our car; I felt our long run pace was as strong as anybody’s.

• “Hopefully we get it back to the way it was … everyone at FRM is going to be working hard to get this thing back right, but all the confidence in the world in them.”

• Starting lineup

  Pos	Car	Driver	Lap Time
  1	5	Kyle Larson	29.391
  2	17	Chris Buescher	29.448
  3	20	Christopher Bell	29.465
  4	45	Tyler Reddick	29.484
  5	22	Joey Logano	29.529
  6	54	Ty Gibbs	29.551
  7	24	William Byron	29.569
  8	99	Daniel Suarez	29.593
  9	9	Chase Elliott	29.595
  10	12	Ryan Blaney	29.596
  11	71	Michael McDowell	29.613
  12	7	Justin Haley	29.625
  13	2	Austin Cindric	29.627
  14	11	Denny Hamlin	29.633
  15	23	Bubba Wallace	29.634
  16	43	Erik Jones	29.670
  17	42	John Hunter Nemechek	29.674
  18	38	Zane Smith	29.682
  19	19	Chase Briscoe	29.684
  20	3	Austin Dillon	29.705
  21	48	Alex Bowman	29.716
  22	77	Carson Hocevar	29.793
  23	34	Todd Gilliland	29.825
  24	4	Noah Gragson	29.840
  25	35	Riley Herbst	29.846
  26	1	Ross Chastain	29.847
  27	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	29.851
  28	67	Corey Heim	29.899
  29	10	Ty Dillon	29.974
  30	60	Ryan Preece	30.016
  31	41	Cole Custer	30.016
  32	33	Jesse Love	30.070
  33	16	AJ Allmendinger	30.160
  34	88	Shane van Gisbergen	30.213
  35	8	Kyle Busch	30.384
  36	6	Brad Keselowski	30.602
  37	51	Cody Ware	31.152
  38	21	Josh Berry	31.406