Kyle Larson wins pole at Fontana

Is this the week that Kyle Larson finishes first?

Larson, who has three-straight second-place finishes in the Cup Series, qualified first for Sunday’s race at Auto Club Speedway. He beat out Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski for the top spot.

It’s Larson’s first pole since 2014, when he qualified first at Pocono Raceway in his rookie season. He finished 11th in that race.

Larson finished second in the 2016 season finale at Homestead and has continued his roll in 2017, finishing second at Atlanta, Las Vegas and Phoenix. He was leading the Daytona 500 with two laps to go before being passed by Martin Truex Jr. and subsequently running out of gas on the final lap.

Jimmie Johnson, who spun in Friday’s practice session, didn’t attempt a lap in qualifying. Crew chief Chad Knaus opted to let his team take their time to prepare Johnson’s backup car instead of rushing to get it ready for a qualifying attempt. Johnson’s spin in turns 3 and 4 in practice was harmless … until his car hit the grass. The splitter of Johnson’s car dug into the grass on the inside of the corners and damaged the car enough to force the No. 48 team to get out the backup car.

It was yet another reason why NASCAR needs to get rid of splitters — the front edges sticking out of the cars at the bottom of the front bumper — in all three of its top series. While the splitters help with downforce for teams, they also create unnecessary damage when cars travel through the grass at a track.

Here’s how the starting lineup will look for Sunday’s race. Joey Logano, Trevor Bayne, Matt DiBenedetto and Gray Gaulding didn’t make it through inspection in time to make a qualifying lap.

1. Kyle Larson
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Brad Keselowski
4. Martin Truex Jr.
5. Ryan Newman
6. Matt Kenseth
7. Kevin Harvick
8. Jamie McMurray
9. Kyle Busch
10. Daniel Suarez
11. Austin Dillon
12. Kasey Kahne
13. Chase Elliott
14. Erik Jones
15. Kurt Busch
16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
17. Clint Bowyer
18. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
19. Ryan Blaney
20. Chris Buescher
21. Ty Dillon
22. Danica Patrick
23. Paul Menard
24. AJ Allmendinger
25. Michael McDowell
26. Landon Cassill
27. David Ragan
28. Cole Whitt
29. Reed Sorenson
30. Corey LaJoie
31. Aric Almirola
32. Jeffrey Earnhardt
33. Derrike Cope
34. Timmy Hill
35. Joey Logano
36. Trevor Bayne
37. Jimmie Johnson
38. Matt DiBenedetto
39. Gray Gaulding

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of Dr. Saturday and From the Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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