LOS ANGELES – William Byron and Alex Bowman earned top-five starting spots for the NASCAR Cup Series Clash at the Coliseum following Sunday’s heat races.
In the No. 24 RaptorTough.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, Byron led all 25 laps from the pole of the fourth and final heat race at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. That will see him start fourth for the 150-lap main event.
Bowman finished second in the opening heat race to secure the fifth starting spot in the main event. His pass on Justin Haley for second with six laps to go in the heat earned the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 a top-five starting position. This weekend marks the first track time together for Bowman and new crew chief Blake Harris.
RELATED: See scenes from the first day in Los Angeles | Clash format explained
Kyle Larson will start 14th in the Clash after finishing fourth in the second heat race. He started third and quickly moved up to second in the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. After restarting on the outside position of the front row with five laps to go, he lost two spots.
Chase Elliott started on the pole of the second 50-lap last chance qualifier and led every lap to earn his spot in the main event. Elliott will start 22nd in the main event. He narrowly missed advancing from the second heat race but was able to earn his spot in the LCQ. On the final lap of the heat race, the 2020 champion moved into the final transfer position before contact from Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got him loose and allowed for Kevin Harvick to secure the transfer position. The driver of the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 finished his heat in sixth.
"It was definitely full contact," Elliott told FOX’s Regan Smith following the heat race. "It’s all good. Obviously, ended up on the short end of just barely missing it. … We’ll see what happens, but yeah, it got wild."
RELATED: See the paint schemes for Sunday’s race
The four 25-lap heat races set 20 of the 27 spots in the main field as the top-five finishers in each heat advanced to the main event. Two 50-lap last chance qualifiers saw the top-three finishers in those races advance with the final spot awarded to the driver highest in 2022 driver points yet to lock into the field.
Last year’s inaugural race at the LA Coliseum saw Larson finish an organizational-best fifth, while Byron scored a top-10 finish. The Hendrick Motorsports duo were two of the four drivers to run every lap in the top 10.
Hendrick Motorsports has earned seven Clash victories, which are third-most among all teams. Those wins have come among four drivers: Ken Schrader (1989 and 1990), Jeff Gordon (1994 and 1997), Jimmie Johnson (2005 and 2019) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2008).
RELATED: All of Hendrick Motorsports’ wins in the Clash
The 150-lap main event of the Clash will begin at 8 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).