William Byron captures Cup Series Pole at Circuit of the Americas

William Byron won the Busch Light Pole at Circuit of the Americas and will lead the field to green Sunday afternoon in the Cup Series EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. It’s his first pole this season, his 13th career pole and his second-straight pole at the 3.426-mile track.

“I feel really happy with the way the week’s gone and I feel very fresh going into this race,” Byron said. “We’ve just got to go through the process of the race. Just manage the runs, have enough long-run speed. I feel we got a good balance with our car. We’ve been struggling to have smooth races, so this is a good start.”

The Hendrick Motorsports driver was fastest overall in his No. 24 Chevrolet during practice Saturday and he carried that momentum over to earn the top spot in the qualifying session with a lap of 94.696 mph.

Ty Gibbs will join him on the front row in the No. 54 Toyota as 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick will start third in the No. 45 Toyota. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell (No. 20 Toyota) and Spire Motorsports’ Corey LaJoie (No. 7 Chevrolet) claimed the remaining top five starting spots. It will be LaJoie’s best Cup Series career starting position.

Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott and Bubba Wallace rounded out the top 10.

The highest qualifying Ford was the No. 2 Team Penske Ford driven by Austin Cindric who will start 11th. Rookie Shane van Gisbergen will start 12th in the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet.
You can tune into the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX with radio coverage provided by PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Notes:

Kyle Larson was late to the qualifying session as the Hendrick Motorsports team had to change a rotor. Larson will start Sunday’s race in 15th.

Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi, who will be making his second NASCAR start, qualified 25th in the No. 50 23XI Racing Toyota.

1.   William Byron
2.   Ty Gibbs
3.   Tyler Reddick
4.   Christopher Bell
5.   Corey LaJoie
6.   Ross Chastain
7.   Martin Truex Jr.
8.   Denny Hamlin
9.   Chase Elliott
10. Bubba Wallace
11. Austin Cindric
12. Shane Van Gisbergen
13. Justin Haley
14. A.J. Allmendinger
15. Kyle Larson
16. Kyle Busch
17. Alex Bowman
18. Carson Hocevar (R)
19. Daniel Suarez
20. Chris Buescher
21. Austin Dillon
22. John Hunter Nemechek
23. Kaz Grala (R)
24. Ryan Preece
25. Kamui Kobayashi
26. Todd Gilliland
27. Michael McDowell
28. Ryan Blaney
29. Harrison Burton
30. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
31. Josh Berry (R)
32. Chase Briscoe
33. Daniel Hemric
34. Zane Smith (R)
35. Joey Logano
36. Brad Keselowski
37. Timmy Hill
38. Erik Jones
39. Noah Gragson