William Byron scored his third NASCAR Cup Series Busch Light pole of the season Saturday afternoon at Pocono Raceway with a 52.746 seconds lap in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. It also marked his 11th Cup Series career pole in 201 starts.
“Yeah, it’s really important to have pit stall selection,” Byron said after the qualifying session. “I feel like I reiterate that a lot with my team – qualifying position is important, but pit stall selection is really critical. Just happy to get that number one pit stall. For us, I felt like we had a really smooth day.”
He will be joined on the front row by Martin Truex Jr. in the No.19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Truex has has two previous wins (2015 and 2018) at the 2.5-mile track. Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick will start behind them on the second row followed by Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Austin Cindric and Bubba Wallace to complete the top-10 starting positions.
Chase Elliott, the 2022 defending race winner, and Todd Gilliland, had issues during qualifying as each spun in Turn 2. While Elliott did not make contact with the wall in his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Gilliland was not as fortunate and scraped the wall in his Front Row Motorsports Ford. Both drivers will start at the rear of the field in Sunday’s HighPoint.com 400.
It was especially frustrating for Elliott who is attempting to earn a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. After missing six races due to injury and being penalized with a one-race suspension, he is currently 60 points behind the last transfer position with only six races remaining in the regular season.
Sunday’s Cup Series HighPoint.com 400 is set for Sunday at 2:30 p.m. on USA and the NBC Sports App with radio coverage by MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
