It’s fair to say that William Byron’s season has gotten off to a wonderful start, on account of his back-to-back victories at Las Vegas and Atlanta, and now, his ninth career pole in the NASCAR Cup Series at Circuit of The Americas.
Driving the Liberty University-backed No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro, Byron posted a time of 130.760 seconds (93.882mph) to capture his first pole position of the season and his first at the 3.41-mile road course.
However, the driver from Hendrick Motorsports wasn’t the favorite to capture the pole position for Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, especially after Tyler Reddick showed incredible speed in practice and the first round of qualifying.
Reddick, driving for 23XI Racing, was only able to post the second-quickest lap of the final round, putting his Monster Energy Toyota Camry TRD on the front row for Sunday’s sixth event of the NASCAR Cup Series season.
Austin Cindric will start Sunday’s event from third place, while Jordan Taylor impressed the entirety of the NASCAR Cup Series garage with a fourth-place starting spot. Daniel Suarez completed the top five.
Alex Bowman, AJ Allmendinger, Erik Jones, Kyle Busch, and rookie Noah Gragson completed the top-10 in qualifying, as those who advanced to the final 10-minute round.
Other notables that will start Sunday’s race from outside the top-10, include: Ross Chastain (12th), Kyle Larson (13th), Christopher Bell (14th), Joey Logano (15th), Denny Hamlin (21st), Martin Truex, Jr. (25th), Kevin Harvick (29th), Brad Keselowski (30th), Ryan Blaney (38th), and Aric Almirola (39th).
Kimi Raikkonen, making his second career NASCAR Cup Series start for Trackhouse Racing, will start from 22nd on Sunday, two spots ahead of former Formula One champion Jenson Button, who will start 24th.
Jimmie Johnson, making his second start of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, will start from 31st after struggling in qualifying.
Up next for the NASCAR Cup Series is the main event, Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas.
