Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell will get to reignite their competitive rivalry from the front row of Saturday's NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Darlington Raceway.
DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell will get to reignite their competitive rivalry from the front row of Saturday's NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Darlington Raceway.
As the final car to go out in qualifying, Larson took the pole from Bell for the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200. Larson was the only driver to run in the 29-second range, clocking in a lap around the 1.366-mile, egg-shaped track in 29.994 seconds -- a little under a half a tenth faster than Bell (30.041 seconds).
In contrast to Larson, who won last weekend's NOAPS race, Bell hasn't won in the series since 2024 -- coincidentally at Darlington. He won the pole for that race and led 108 of 150 laps en route to a perfect season, where he won in his other NOAPS start that season.
Bell also raced the spring Darlington race last year but finished 25th after winning the pole and leading 27 of 147 laps.
Larson and Bell will lead Carson Kvapil, Justin Allgaier, Parker Retzlaff, Sam Mayer, William Sawalich, Brandon Jones, Ross Chastain and Jesse Love.
Jones will try to defend his Darlington crown from eighth.
Josh Williams and JJ Yeley each reeled off a solid qualifying run to start 17th and 20th. Williams is racing for DGM Racing while Yeley is racing for Hettinger Racing.
Matt DiBenedetto failed to qualify after making an attempt with a throwback scheme honoring Michael Annett.
In practice, Bell paced Jones, Retzlaff, Kvapil, Mayer, Sawalich, Love, Jeremy Clements, Austin Hill and Anthony Alfredo. Bell also topped the 10 consecutive lap average, ahead of Kvapil, Jones, Love, Retzlaff, Allgaier, Sammy Smith, Hill, Corey Day and William Sawalich.
The Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 will go green Saturday at 5:32 p.m. ET on The CW, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and Motor Racing Network.
Here are the practice and qualifying sheets.
