Martinsville starting lineup: Christopher Bell scores NASCAR Cup pole

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Christopher Bell, who had his title hopes dashed last fall at Martinsville Speedway, claimed the pole for Sunday's Cup race at the historic track.

Bell earned his first pole of the season and 14th of his Cup career with a lap of 96.034 mph. He beat a Hendrick Motorsports contingent for the top spot in Saturday's qualifying session.

Hendrick took the next three spots with Chase Elliott (95.951 mph), Alex Bowman (95.937) and Kyle Larson (95.854). That marks the first time the organization has had three drivers start in the top five at Martinsville.

Denny Hamlin (95.840) qualified fifth. Casey Mears, making his first Cup start since the 2019 Daytona 500, will start 37th. Burt Myers, who competed in the Clash, will make his Cup debut in a points race Sunday. He will start last in the 38-car field.

More: Martinsville Cup starting lineup

Bell was eliminated from title contention in last year's playoff cutoff race after NASCAR ruled that he committed a safety violation by riding against the wall at the end of the final lap and

"I'll never forget last year's race, for sure," Bell said.

Bell's pole comes a week after he struggled at Homestead. Bell spun, hit the inside frontstretch wall and finished 29th in what he described to NBC Sports as a race that was "just miserable. I made a mistake, spun out and damaged the car and that was it. Miserable day."

Said Bell Saturday: "I was mad at myself last week at Homestead because it was an off-race for us. We've reached the point in our team maturity that if we just do everything right and race and execute at the level that we're capable of, we're certainly capable of turning a bad day into a top-15, top-10 finish. I didn't do that. I spun out and took ourselves out of it early on in the race, which is a bummer."