William Byron made an emphatic statement in his quest to maintain his championship hopes of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season by claiming the Busch Light Pole Award for the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday, October 25.
The event’s qualifying format consisted of a single vehicle, impound round. Each of the contenders entered to compete in the event cycled around Martinsville for two laps in an attempt to post the fastest lap.
During the qualifying round, Byron, who was the seventh-fastest competitor during practice earlier on Saturday, clocked in his fastest lap at 98.185 mph in 19.286 seconds. Byron’s lap was enough for this year’s two-time Daytona 500 champion from Charlotte, North Carolina, to claim the top-starting spot over fellow Charlotte competitor Ty Gibbs.
With the pole, Byron racked up his third Cup Series pole position of the 2025 season, his first since starting first at Darlington Raceway in April and his first ever at Martinsville. He previously won at Martinsville twice and claimed the final transfer berth to the Playoffs’ Championship 4 round in the previous two seasons. Byron strives to repeat his success and contend for a victory that would enable him to reach the finale and contend for this year’s title.
Currently, Byron is ranked in fifth place in the 2025 Cup Series Playoff standings and is 36 points below the top-four cutline to reach the Championship 4 round entering Sunday’s Round of 8 finale.
“[The pole]’s great,” Byron said. “It’s not the race, though, so we got a lot of work to do tomorrow. I felt good in practice and felt decent there in qualifying. It’s so cold. It took a while for the tires to kind of come in, but yeah, it feels nice. First pole at Martinsville is always good. We usually struggle to qualify well here, so yeah, just excited for tomorrow. It’s a big challenge and that’s what counts. After 500 laps, we’ll see how we are [in the Playoff standings].”
Byron will share the front row with Ty Gibbs, the latter of whom clocked in his fastest qualifying lap at 98.175 mph in 19.288 seconds. Kyle Larson, Byron’s teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, will start in third place. Currently, Larson holds sole possession of the fourth and final transfer berth to the Championship 4 round by 36 points.
Playoff contender Joey Logano and Championship 4 finalist Denny Hamlin will start in fourth and fifth, respectively. Cole Custer and Kyle Busch, along with fellow contenders Chase Elliott and Championship 4 finalist Chase Briscoe, will start from sixth to ninth, respectively. Austin Cindric completed the top-10 starting grid.
Notably, Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney were the lone two Playoff competitors who did not qualify in the top 10. Bell, who is ranked in third place in the standings and is 37 points above the cutline, qualified in 12th place. Meanwhile, Blaney, the reigning two-time Martinsville fall winner who trails the cutline by 47 points in seventh place in the standings, will start in 31st place.
Like Blaney, teammate Logano trails the cutline by 38 points in sixth place while Elliott trails by 62 points in eighth place.
With 37 competitors vying for 37 starting spots, was the lone competitor who did not qualify for the event.
Qualifying Results:
1. William Byron, 98.185 mph, 19.286 seconds
2. Ty Gibbs, 98.175 mph, 19.288 seconds
3. Kyle Larson, 98.038 mph, 19.315 seconds
4. Joey Logano, 98.002 mph, 19.322 seconds
5. Denny Hamlin, 97.876 mph, 19.347 seconds
6. Cole Custer, 97.871 mph, 19.348 seconds
7. Kyle Busch, 97.850 mph, 19.352 seconds
8. Chase Elliott, 97.845 mph, 19.353 seconds
9. Chase Briscoe, 97.729 mph, 19.376 seconds
10. Austin Cindric, 97.643 mph, 19.393 seconds
11. Michael McDowell, 97.613 mph, 19.399 seconds
12. Christopher Bell, 97.603 mph, 19.401 seconds
13. Ross Chastain, 97.568 mph, 19.408 seconds
14. Tyler Reddic, 97.553 mph, 19.411 seconds
15. Carson Hocevar, 97.523 mph, 19.417 seconds
16. Todd Gilliland, 97.442 mph, 19.433 seconds
17. Alex Bowman, 97.422 mph, 19.437 seconds
18. Ryan Preece, 97.417 mph, 19.438 seconds
19. Brad Keselowski, 97.342 mph, 19.453 seconds
20. Austin Dillon, 97.332 mph, 19.455 seconds
21. Bubba Wallace, 97.312 mph, 19.459 seconds
22. Shane van Gisbergen, 97.297 mph, 19.462 seconds
23. Zane Smith, 97.083 mph, 19.505 seconds
24. John Hunter Nemechek, 97.053 mph, 19.511 seconds
25. Riley Herbst, 97.008 mph, 19.520 seconds
26. Ty Dillon, 96.978 mph, 19.526 seconds
27. Josh Berry, 96.959 mph, 19.530 seconds
28. Erik Jones, 96.959 mph, 19.530 seconds
29. Chris Buescher, 96.815 mph, 19.559 seconds
30. Daniel Suarez, 96.810 mph, 19.560 seconds
31. Ryan Blaney, 96.583 mph, 19.606 seconds
32. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 96.470 mph, 19.629 seconds
33. AJ Allmendinger, 96.376 mph, 19.648 seconds
34. Justin Haley, 96.268 mph, 19.670 seconds
35. Noah Gragson, 96.102 mph, 19.704 seconds
36. Cody Ware, 95.482 mph, 19.832 seconds
37. Casey Mears, 95.180 mph, 19.895 seconds
*Bold indicates Playoff competitors.
The 2025 Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway is scheduled to occur on Sunday, October 26, at 2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM and HBO Max.
