Kyle Larson Wins the Pole for the ARCA 200 at Pocono
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender, Kyle Larson, has won the pole award for the ARCA 200 at Pocono. Larson’s No. 4 Chevrolet, fielded by Turner-Scott Motorsports, set the pace in ARCA Series qualifying with a staggering time of 53.106 seconds – edging out second-place qualifier, Brennan Poole, by over a tenth of a second.
Larson will be pulling the double this weekend as he will race the No. 42 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series as per usual. Prior to Pocono, Larson has run just two career ARCA Series events, including a second-place finish at Daytona last season. During this weekend’s event, Larson has teamed up with his Cup Series sponsor, Target, to run the ARCA Series event in an attempt to gather more experience before hitting the Pocono Raceway for the first time.
“It just helps me learn the track a little bit better. I’ve never raced here before. I’m trying to run as many laps as I can,” Larson said. “I’m not sure if it’s hurting me a whole lot, but it certainly is helping.”
Larson later joked about how the team has made him drive around town in his Chevrolet Camaro – attempting to figure out a way to shift smoother in the Cup Series car where drivers shift at least two times per lap.
Justin Allison will start third in the No. 88 car. Allison is the grandson of former NASCAR driver, Donnie Allison. Current ARCA Series point leader, Grant Enfinger, will start ninth as teammate to Allison. Entering Pocono, Enfinger has five top-10s in six ARCA Series races this year. Of those who qualified inside of the top-10, Poole (who will be replaced by John Wes Townley for Saturday’s event), Frank Kimmel and Enfinger are the only drivers to record a victory in the ARCA Series.
Joseph Wolkin
Joseph Wolkin (@JosephNASCAR) is a sophomore at the Queensborough Community College as an English major. He’s a native of Whitestone, NY, just outside of New York City, and has been attempting to find roots of motorsports within his area since 2004. He started out as just a fan, but over the course of his high school career, he ended up falling in love with writing.
Joseph has been covering NASCAR since 2011 for several different websites. Recently, he was named as one of two lead NASCAR columnists for Rant Sports after working for the site for over one year. Working with Rant Sports for approximately 14 months, Joseph has covered New York City area sports teams such as the New York Giants, New York Mets, New York Rangers, New York Islanders and more.
Through his passion is for NASCAR, Joseph has adapted to changing times and realizes that he has numerous opportunities in the journalism work. As one of the top young sports writers, his goal is to become one of the top motorsports writers of this new digital media era. However, he also believes that it’s important to stick to the traditional routers of print publications after seeing his high school newspaper dissolve due to a lack of funding.
Currently, besides his duties with Speedway Digest, Joseph is a columnist with Fronstretch.com, Motorsport.com and has a weekly article in NASCAR Pole Position's digital version - ROAR! Weekly Race Preview Magazine.
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