Daytona 500: Larson on pole, Villeneuve qualifies

The 29-year-old Hendrick Motorsports driver won the pole position for the Daytona 500 season-opener with a lap of 181.159 mph in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Wednesday night at Daytona International Speedway.

And for a record fifth consecutive year, Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman has also earned a front-row starting position in the Daytona 500. He’ll start the No. 48 Chevrolet second.

All four of the Hendrick Motorsports cars advanced to the final round with 10 drivers and ultimately were among the five fastest qualifiers. Only the front row was set Wednesday night with the remaining Daytona 500 field finalized in Thursday’s Bluegreen Vacations Duel 150 qualifying races.

“It’s unbelievable,” Bowman said of the record. “It just says so much about Hendrick Motorsports and these guys. It’s cool to have the record but I feel like Greg Ives and the race team should get the credit. The driver doesn’t do much.”

“Hopefully we can figure out how to win it,” Bowman added with a smile.

This is the seventh Daytona 500 pole position in eight years for the team. And it’s Larson’s career-best starting position.

“It’s really neat,” Larson said. “I mean anytime you are really proud of your team to get a pole here ‘cause this is the littlest it has to do with us drivers, qualifying at superspeedways.

“Everybody’s who’s had a part in touching these vehicles, whether it be on the computer, engineering or just hands-on. It’s really neat, just awesome the speed in our Hendricks.com Chevy. Hopefully this is the beginning of a really good season.

“Almost feels like my proudest pole,” he continued, “because you’re proud of everybody who had an impact in doing it.”

Villeneuve, the 1997 F1 world champion and 1995 Indianapolis 500 winner, qualified for his career first Daytona 500 Wednesday night by virtue of earning one of two “Open’ positions available in pole qualifying – recording the 36th fastest speed in the No. 27 Team Hezeberg Ford.

He has nothing left to prove and yet celebrated as if qualifying for the Daytona 500 was the biggest win of his career.

The 50-year-old doubted he could make it into the race through Wednesday night's time trials at Daytona International Speedway. His Ford wasn't particularly fast and needed three tries to pass NASCAR inspection.

So when he posted the fastest time of the six cars eligible in time trials to earn a spot in Sunday's field, Villeneuve erupted in joy and jogged his way down pit lane in search of his crew: "To be able to make such a big race at such a high level is amazing.

"When I'm in the race car I don't realize that I'm 50, which is good. As long as it carries on like this, I can't imagine myself stopping racing.

"It's satisfying and amazing because there's quite a few times where I've been hearing: OK, come on. You've passed it. Just give it up.

"No, the hunger has never stopped ... until the day where I guess you start getting your foot off the throttle because you get a little bit scared or you don't get that adrenaline rush anymore as a positive thing, that's when you should stop.

"When I’m in a race car I don’t realize I’m 50 years old, which is good. As long as it carries on like this, I can’t imagine myself stopping racing," added Villeneuve.

Noah Gragson, a full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series championship contender, also earned an automatic bid into the Daytona 500 with a 33rd best qualifying lap. Sunday will mark his NASCAR Cup Series debut.

Two other Open cars – representing teams without NASCAR Charters – will be able to make the 40-car grid based upon their finish in the Bluegreen Vacations Duel 150s, which set the final starting order of the Daytona 500 grid.

This will mark Villeneuve’s fifth career NASCAR Cup Series start and first-ever in stock car racing’s crown jewel. The last time he raced in the series was 2013 when he recorded a 41st-place finish in Sonoma, Calif. His best previous series finish was 21st – at Talladega in his first career NASCAR Cup Series start.

Gragson’s showing in the No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet was equally as dramatic. His team owner Linda Beard – along with her children – is fielding the family-owned team in honor of her late husband Mark. It is only planning on running the superspeedway races and Gragson’s work Wednesday marks the team’s fifth start in the Daytona 500.

“It’s really emotional being able to make the race after not making it last year,” Gragson said, adding, “Last year not making the race, makes this year that much more special. … I really hope to make the Beard family proud this weekend.”

Judging by the smile and emotion she showed on pit road following the qualifying session, Gragson indeed made her proud.

“People that don’t race have no idea how much this means. .. when you are a team like us, we love it,” Linda Beard said. “To do this means so much to us, not only emotionally but just the thrill of it.”