DARLINGTON, S.C. – Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron won pole position for Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) – yet another supreme performance for his NASCAR Cup Series championship-leading No. 24 team.
Byron’s lap of 170.904 mph around the iconic 1.366-mile oval set fast lap early in Busch Light Pole Qualifying Saturday afternoon and set up a front row that will also include Ryan Preece in the No. 60 Roush Fenway Keselowski Ford – Preece’s best start since winning his only career pole position at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in Spring, 2023.
It’s the 15th pole position of the 27-year old Byron’s eight-year career – second of the season (also Phoenix in March) and second at the notoriously tough Darlington track.
“I felt good about it today, felt like we had a good plan going into practice and that we are always strong here,’’ said this year’s Daytona 500 winner Byron, who won at Darlington in 2023 and said it may well be his “best track.”
“Tried to find a decent balance there, worked on it and got better and finished practice pretty strong so I felt like I had some confidence going into practice. Was just nervous going early. Having an earlier draw was not ideal, but it seemed like the track temp was going up so it wasn’t the worst thing. … Proud of our team, we had a really good week of prep.’’
Although Chevy and Ford split the front row. Toyotas filled out the rest of the top-five on the grid. Last week’s Martinsville winner Denny Hamlin – Darlington’s winningest active driver (four wins) – was third fastest in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. His teammate, Daytona 500 polesitter Chase Briscoe was fourth quickest in the No. 19 JGR Toyota followed by 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, who will roll off fifth in the No. 23 Toyota that Hamlin co-owns.
Austin Cindric will start sixth in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford, followed by 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick (Toyota), Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch (Chevrolet), Penske’s Ryan Blaney (Ford) and Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell (Chevrolet).
Although the Hendrick team is ranked first, second (Kyle Larson), third (Chase Elliott) and fifth (Alex Bowman) in the championship points, his teammates did not fare as well in Saturday’s time trials. Elliott will start 19th. Larson, who won at Darlington in 2023 will start 19th and Bowman will roll off 33rd.
“It may be tricky strategy-wise and you can get stuck back there, so [qualifying] matters maybe just a tick more than other places,” Byron said, noting of his teammates, “These cars are really finicky so hitting the balance and just hitting the lap the way you want it to be can be really difficult. So I’m not surprised because there’s a lot of parity in the Next Gen era and especially in qualifying so you can be just that little bit off.
“I feel like our team has really good notes from qualifying though and that will really help.’’
Defending race winner Brad Keselowski, co-owner and driver of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s No. 6 Ford will start 20th.
Source: Holly Cain | NASCAR Wire Service
