NASCAR Cup Series at New Hampshire starting lineup: Christopher Bell wins his fifth career pole

Christopher Bell won the pole for the Crayon 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in qualifying on Saturday, posting a lap of 30.524 (124.781 mph) in the final round to take the top starting spot over Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. Bell’s pole is the fifth of his Cup Series career and first of the 2023 season.

Bell’s pole comes in a race where he is the defending winner, having led the final 42 laps at Loudon last July to earn his first of what ended up being three wins in 2022. New Hampshire has been one of Bell’s best tracks overall, as he has five wins there between the Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series.

Saturday’s practice and qualifying session was a charmed one for Bell, but not so much for Kyle Busch. Busch got into the outside wall on the exit of Turn 2 during his practice run, prompting his team to have to repair the toe link in the right rear of his No. 8 Chevrolet. Although Busch would end up making the final round of qualifying, things unraveled for him yet again when he spun and backed into the outside wall on his lap of record.

Busch will start 10th despite his accident, and crew chief Randall Burnett told PRN that his team will attempt to repair his primary car rather than go to a backup.

The only car that had issues in pre-qualifying tech inspection was Noah Gragson’s, with Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports reporting that Gragson’s No. 42 failed inspection twice. Gragson had an engineer ejected from the race weekend and lost pit selection before qualifying 29th.

Crayon 301 starting lineup

1. #20 – Christopher Bell
2. #19 – Martin Truex Jr.
3. #10 – Aric Almirola
4. #22 – Joey Logano
5. #12 – Ryan Blaney
6. #45 – Tyler Reddick
7. #24 – William Byron
8. #23 – Bubba Wallace
9. #6 – Brad Keselowski
10. #8 – Kyle Busch
11. #3 – Austin Dillon
12. #99 – Daniel Suarez
13. #4 – Kevin Harvick
14. #16 – AJ Allmendinger
15. #5 – Kyle Larson
16. #47 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
17. #34 – Michael McDowell
18. #9 – Chase Elliott
19. #31 – Justin Haley
20. #11 – Denny Hamlin
21. #41 – Ryan Preece
22. #2 – Austin Cindric
23. #38 – Todd Gilliland
24. #7 – Corey LaJoie
25. #48 – Alex Bowman
26. #17 – Chris Buescher
27. #14 – Chase Briscoe
28. #21 – Harrison Burton
29. #42 – Noah Gragson (R)
30. #43 – Erik Jones
31. #1 – Ross Chastain
32. #78 – B.J. McLeod
33. #15 – Ryan Newman
34. #51 – Cole Custer
35. #77 – Ty Dillon
36. #54 – Ty Gibbs (R)