Can Kyle Larson convert his pole position to victory and win for the first time in 2023?

Kyle Larson won his maiden Busch Light Pole Award in his 2023 campaign for the Cup Series race in Phoenix. Larson clocked a pole speed of 130.237 mph to top the timing sheets.

The 2021 Cup series champion was delighted to qualify for the pole, as he believed that the qualifying position would influence the race on Sunday. Larson last took pole position in the championship race in 2021 and went on to win. Reigning champion Joey Logano qualified on pole and won the championship race last season.

The #5 driver spoke to NASCAR after the qualifying session, saying:

"It means a lot. Qualifying is really important here. We got the pole in 2021 and that really helped us win the championship race. Joey [Logano] had an extremely fast car in the fall last year, but he got the pole as well and won. So I think that number one pit stall means a lot."

He added:

"Happy to be quick this weekend; quick in practice and have it translate to qualifying."

Denny Hamlin missed the pole position by 0.065 seconds and will start beside Kyle Larson in Sunday's race. William Byron, who is coming off a race win in Las Vegas, will start third after setting an average speed of 129.922 mph. Brad Keselowski and Christopher Bell rounded off the top-five positions.

Hendrick Motorsports is coming off a podium sweep in Vegas, where the three regular drivers had a dominant run to the checkered flag. Kyle Larson hopes to continue the strong momentum after missing out on a race win in Vegas due to a late race caution.

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Kyle Larson's team under investigation

NASCAR confiscated hood louvers from all four Hendrick Motorsports cars on Friday. The governing body has not imposed any penalties on the team yet, but will conduct further evaluations on the parts. Their investigation will be conducted at the NASCAR Research and Development Center in Concord, North Carolina.

NASCAR also confiscated the hood louver of the #31 Chevy driven by Justin Haley in the pre-qualifying inspection on Saturday. Penalties for the two teams, if any, will be announced by next week.

NASCAR introduced a new aero package in Phoenix. Kyle Larson is confident that his team has done a better job than the others, saying that they are well prepared to adjust to the new changes.

Speaking about the changes, Larson said:

"Looking at SMT, I felt like my ability to roll some center-corner speed in (turns) one and two kind of gave me a little bit of an advantage."

"I think my car is fine. I think I just need to do some things different and get even better in three and four and then we should be really good."