PLYMOUTH, Wis. – 
What does reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson do in his spare time? He drives race cars.
Larson has the type of versatile talent reminiscent of three-time Cup champion Tony Stewart, who could adapt to just about any sort of racing vehicle.
During his off days from NASCAR racing, Larson frequently will jump into a 410 winged sprint car, midget racer, Silver Crown car or a dirt late model—and he’ll win consistently in all those disciplines.
So it should come as no surprise that Larson won the pole for Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Road America—and by a decisive margin.
Racing an Xfinity car for the first time since 2018, Larson toured the 4.048-mile road course in 134.318 seconds (108.495 seconds), beating second-place qualifier Ty Gibbs by .713 seconds over the 14-turn circuit.
Once Larson got his bearings in the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet—Hendrick’s first foray into the Xfinity Series since a one-off with Stewart in 2009—he cruised to the top starting spot.
“Yeah, it was honestly surprising when I had read that it had been since, I think, 2018,” Larson said. “It doesn’t feel that long ago.
“I don’t know – the driving stuff is whatever. It’s just like the visuals of the tach and the gauges. It’s a different style of dash than what I was even used to when I was racing Xfinity for Ganassi. Just the little things like that are hard to adjust to at first. But once you’re out there, it all kind of becomes natural and it’s just another stock car at that point.”
Source: Reid Spencer / NASCAR Wire Service
