Christopher Bell earns Las Vegas NASCAR Cup pole in…

It's a Toyota lockout of the first two rows with Joe Gibbs Racing 1-2-3 in Las Vegas NASCAR Cup qualifying.

Christopher Bell rocketed to the top of the charts and was the only driver to break into the 28-second bracket. Four of Bell's 15 career poles have happened in Vegas, with the other three taking place in 2022 (first career pole in the Cup Series), 2023, and 2024.

"Our Interstate Batteries Camry feels very nice," said Bell with a smile after qualifying. "I've talked about this a lot through the last couple of races, but just super, super proud of my team. We're finally getting back to where we need to be and it feels good. We used to be able to qualify really well on these intermediates, and then, I don't know, it feels we fell a little bit off and now we got it back My engineers, crew chief, my mechanics, my pit crew -- everybody has been doing such a good job in 2026. It's so fun to drive this #20 car, and I'm excited about tomorrow."

He bested teammate Denny Hamlin by a full 0.150s, with the two of them followed by Ty Gibbs in third, who is coming off of back-to-back top five finishes. Bubba Wallace completed the Toyota quartet in fourth, while Kyle Larson led the Chevrolets in fifth.

Ryan Blaney was the top-qualifying Ford driver in sixth, followed by championship leader Tyler Reddick in seventh, Ryan Preece eighth, William Byron ninth, and Chris Buescher tenth.

There were no incidents during the session, and all cars managed to record a time. Ty Dillon was the slowest of all, but he also didn't have any practice as he was one of four drivers whose cars struggled to get through inspection, earlier in the day.

Photos from Las Vegas - Practice & Qualifying

Las Vegas NASCAR Cup starting lineup

cla	#	driver	manufacturer	time	gap	mph
1	20	Christopher Bell	Toyota	28.853		187.156
2	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	29.003	0.150	186.188
3	54	Ty Gibbs	Toyota	29.063	0.210	185.803
4	23	Darrell Wallace Jr	Toyota	29.068	0.215	185.771
5	5	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	29.103	0.250	185.548
6	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	29.160	0.307	185.185
7	45	Tyler Reddick	Toyota	29.168	0.315	185.134
8	60	Ryan Preece	Ford	29.205	0.352	184.900
9	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	29.217	0.364	184.824
10	17	Chris Buescher	Ford	29.245	0.392	184.647
11	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	29.250	0.397	184.615
12	38	Zane Smith	Ford	29.252	0.399	184.603
13	7	Daniel Suarez	Chevrolet	29.279	0.426	184.433
14	43	Erik Jones	Toyota	29.285	0.432	184.395
15	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	29.289	0.436	184.370
16	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Chevrolet	29.294	0.441	184.338
17	1	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	29.338	0.485	184.062
18	19	Chase Briscoe	Toyota	29.343	0.490	184.030
19	77	Carson Hocevar	Chevrolet	29.356	0.503	183.949
20	35	Riley Herbst	Toyota	29.363	0.510	183.905
21	48	Justin Allgaier	Chevrolet	29.376	0.523	183.824
22	22	Joey Logano	Ford	29.376	0.523	183.824
23	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Chevrolet	29.387	0.534	183.755
24	8	Kyle Busch	Chevrolet	29.455	0.602	183.331
25	88	Connor Zilisch	Chevrolet	29.478	0.625	183.187
26	42	John Hunter Nemechek	Toyota	29.493	0.640	183.094
27	34	Todd Gilliland	Ford	29.493	0.640	183.094
28	6	Brad Keselowski	Ford	29.504	0.651	183.026
29	16	AJ Allmendinger	Chevrolet	29.530	0.677	182.865
30	71	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	29.652	0.799	182.113
31	2	Austin Cindric	Ford	29.690	0.837	181.879
32	21	Josh Berry	Ford	29.745	0.892	181.543
33	51	Cody Ware	Chevrolet	29.770	0.917	181.391
34	4	Noah Gragson	Ford	30.059	1.206	179.647
35	41	Cole Custer	Chevrolet	30.250	1.397	178.512
36	10	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	30.607	1.754	176.430