Kyle Larson set the quick time early in the final round of qualifying to set the lineup for Sunday’s South Point 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN). His teammate, William Byron, nearly knocked him off but was just .14-seconds slower allowing it to be a fight between Larson and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell for the pole at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Bell, as the final qualifier of the day, narrowly clipped Larson by .010-seconds en route to his sixth Busch Pole Award of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season. Can he use that to his advantage in Sunday’s Round of 8 opener?

“I know we may not be the championship favorite,’’ Bell added. “But I know we have everything we need to do it.’’

“We’re in a good place.”

He’s 0-for-5 when starting from the pole and among the 31 Cup Series races here, just once did the pole winner wind up in victory lane. That was Kyle Busch 14 years ago in 2009.

“Qualifying has been really fun really since the introduction of the Next Gen car – especially on the intermediate stuff – because it’s just right on the verge of holding your foot down and going wide open,’’ Bell said. “It’s right on the edge and it’s what I look for.’’

Bell (186.335 mph) has 5 front row starting spots in 7 playoff races. He won the pole here in the 2022 spring race and despite leading 32 laps, he finished 10th. He’ll be joined by Larson (186.271 mph) on the front row with this being just his third top 10 starting spot of the postseason. His last 7 starting spots here though are 6th, 3rd, 1st, 2nd, 14th, 6th, 2nd.

Byron (186.181 mph) starts third in his No. 24 Chevrolet for his second top five starting spot over the last eight races but his 5th top 3 starting spot in his last 6 Vegas tries.

Between Bryon and Larson, they combined to lead 239 of the 271 laps this spring with Bryon sweeping both stages and taking the win. Larson was 2nd.

Martin Truex Jr. (185.759 mph) and Chris Buescher (185.669 mph) rounded out the top five in qualifying.

Truex has qualified 4th here in 3 of the last 6 races on this 1.5-mile track while Buescher has never had a top 10 starting spot here, let alone a top 5.

6 of the 8 playoff drivers made the final round of qualifying and all will start in the top 8 at that with Tyler Reddick rolling off 8th in his No. 45 Toyota.

Ryan Blaney (12th) and Denny Hamlin (15th) will each start outside the top 10. Blaney had qualified 2nd, 11th, 4th, 3rd in his last 4 tries prior to this weekend.