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BROOKLYN, Mich. &#8212; Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. are neck and neck at the top of the NASCAR Cup Series standings.Now, they&#8217;re set to start at the front for this weekend&#8217;s race at Michigan International Speedway.Larson won the pole Friday and Truex qualified second, another impressive showing for the duo that&#8217;s been so consistently strong this season. Truex is first in the standings, one point ahead of Larson. Everyone else is over 100 points behind.Larson also had the fastest car in practice Friday, and he won at this track last August after finishing third in June.&#8220;Hopefully, we can keep it going,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So far it&#8217;s been a really good weekend leading in practice and then getting the quick time here.&#8221;Larson won his second pole of the season and third of his career. This will be his fourth chance to start from the pole this year, but two of them came when qualifying was called off because of the weather.Larson posted a lap of 202.156 mph in his No. 42 Chevrolet.Truex is first in the points standings despite being without a pole this year. He started second in the past two races at Pocono and Dover, and earlier in the season at Las Vegas.&#8220;We&#8217;ve got to figure out how to go from second to first,&#8221; Truex said. &#8220;Really all year long, I think we&#8217;ve had a really good qualifying average. Guys have done a really good job on Fridays.&#8221;Clint Bowyer was third in qualifying, followed by Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney, last week&#8217;s winner .The victory by Larson at Michigan last year was his first on NASCAR&#8217;s top circuit. He added another this season at Fontana and has six top-five finishes in 2017.&#8220;I think I&#8217;ve probably grown a little bit as a driver. I feel like our race team has gotten even better. Our race cars have been a lot faster,&#8221; Larson said. &#8220;They were pretty fast leading up to Michigan last year, but I feel like since Michigan when we got that win we have just continued to make them better and had a great offseason &#8212; and started the year off really good. I think we have just kind of continued to gel and continued to build on what we currently have and it has been showing on Sundays a lot.&#8221;Other noteworthy developments at MIS:High speedsDrivers routinely exceed 200 mph at MIS, and Larson didn&#8217;t come close to Jeff Gordon&#8217;s track qualifying record of 206.558, set in 2014. Larson said the ride at those high speeds is reasonably comfortable at MIS.&#8220;Here, you know you&#8217;re going fast, but I get more of a sensation at, say, Dover or Bristol on going fast, just because it&#8217;s bumpy, the straightaways are narrow,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Here, the straightaways are smooth, wide, and you&#8217;re not bouncing around a lot.&#8221;EncouragedBusch won at MIS in 2011 but hasn&#8217;t started higher than sixth at this track since 2009. Now he&#8217;s fourth after qualifying.&#8220;This is a decent starting spot for us for Sunday and Michigan is not one of our best tracks or favorite tracks, but we try to get it better here each and every time and right now I feel pretty good about it,&#8221; Busch said. &#8220;Just missed the balance a little bit there in that final round. It was just a little too free, a little too tight &#8212; just different areas of the race track &#8212; so we&#8217;ve got to fine-tune that balance.&#8221;<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Kyle Larson and his son Owen kneel behind the pole flag after winning the qualifier on Friday in Brooklyn, Mich. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_Larson-MichiganQulifying.jpg</photo0><caption0>Kyle Larson and his son Owen kneel behind the pole flag after winning the qualifier on Friday in Brooklyn, Mich. </caption0><photoCredit0>Carlos Osorio | AP photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Noah TristerAP Sports Writer</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta>NASCAR-Michigan LineupAfter Friday qualifying; race SundayAt Michigan International SpeedwayBrooklyn, Mich.Lap length: (oval, 2 miles)(Car number in parentheses)1. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 202.156 mph.2. (78) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 202.117 mph.3. (14) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 201.664 mph.4. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 201.523 mph.5. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 201.337 mph.6. (21) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 200.854 mph.7. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 200.770 mph.8. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 200.742 mph.9. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 200.730 mph.10. (24) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 200.378 mph.11. (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 200.206 mph.12. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 200.050 mph.13. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 200.306 mph.14. (77) Erik Jones, Toyota, 200.178 mph.15. (41) Kurt Busch, Ford, 199.712 mph.16. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 199.369 mph.17. (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 199.225 mph.18. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 198.961 mph.19. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 198.708 mph.20. (19) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 198.533 mph.21. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 198.522 mph.22. (95) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 198.211 mph.23. (10) Danica Patrick, Ford, 197.775 mph.24. (37) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 197.525 mph.25. (47) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 197.482 mph.26. (43) Darrell Wallace Jr., Ford, 197.401 mph.27. (6) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 197.158 mph.28. (32) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 196.223 mph.29. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 195.780 mph.30. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 195.615 mph.31. (23) Ryan Sieg, Toyota, 193.668 mph.32. (83) Corey LaJoie, Toyota, 192.472 mph.33. (72) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 191.520 mph.34. (15) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 190.305 mph.35. (33) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 189.999 mph.36. (34) Landon Cassill, Ford, 0.000 mph.37. (13) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.</factboxMeta></div>

Larson, Truex take top 2 spots in Michigan qualifying