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Kentucky NASCAR: Kyle Larson gets pole for Ganassi amid rain

Kyle Larson will start on pole for Saturday night's Kentucky Speedway NASCAR Sprint Cup race after qualifying was cancelled to allow more practice time at the rain-plagued event

NASCAR is introducing aerodynamic rule tweaks for this weekend in an effort to improve the quality of racing at the track.

An additional test was scheduled for Wednesday to allow teams to acclimatise to the package, but this was rained off.

Further poor weather then stymied an attempt to run the session on Thursday instead.

The field finally took to the track on Friday morning for a practice session that was due to be extended to make up for the lack of running, only for more rain to arrive and force cars back to the garages after less than an hour.

It was initially indicated that the rest of practice would be abandoned and the field sent straight into qualifying at 5.45pm local time.

NASCAR then decided that qualifying would be cancelled instead, with more practice taking planned once the track is dry. An hour and a half of running is hoped for.

The grid will therefore be set on the times from the truncated morning session.

Larson led the way there in his Ganassi Chevrolet, his 29.583-second lap outpacing 2014 Kentucky winner Brad Keselowski's Penske Ford by 0.146s.

Jeff Gordon, Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr complete the top five.

Last week's Daytona winner Dale Earnhardt Jr starts 10th and reigning champion Kevin Harvick 15th.

Under current NASCAR's rules, in the event of a qualifying rain-out the drivers who have entered the least events in the year fail to qualify.

That means for a second consecutive event - following similar weather trouble at Daytona - Wood Brothers' Ryan Blaney and Leavine Family driver Michael McDowell miss out, along with The Motorsports Group's Travis Kvapil.

Blaney had been 16th quickest out of the 46 entries in the practice that took place.

STARTING GRID:

Pos Driver Team Car
1 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet
2 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford
3 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
4 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford
5 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet
6 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
7 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet
8 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
9 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
10 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
11 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
12 Aric Almirola Richard Petty Motorsports Ford
13 Kurt Busch Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet
14 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
15 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet
16 Matt Kenseth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford
18 Sam Hornish Jr. Richard Petty Motorsports Ford
19 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
20 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
21 Casey Mears Germain Racing Chevrolet
22 Tony Stewart Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet
23 Danica Patrick Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet
24 A.J. Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet
25 David Ragan Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota
26 Ryan Newman Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
27 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford
28 Trevor Bayne Roush Fenway Racing Ford
29 Michael Annett HScott Motorsports Chevrolet
30 Clint Bowyer Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota
31 Alex Bowman Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet
32 Justin Allgaier HScott Motorsports Chevrolet
33 Cole Whitt Front Row Motorsports Ford
34 David Gilliland Front Row Motorsports Ford
35 Jeb Burton BK Racing Toyota
36 Landon Cassill Hillman Smith Motorsports Chevrolet
37 Josh Wise Phil Parsons Racing Ford
38 Brett Moffitt Front Row Motorsports Ford
39 Matt DiBenedetto BK Racing Toyota
40 Will Kimmel Go FAS Racing Ford
41 J.J. Yeley BK Racing Toyota
42 Reed Sorenson Premium Motorsports Chevrolet
43 Alex Kennedy Circle Sport Chevrolet


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