HOMESTEAD, Fla. – William Byron qualified on the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Clocking in with a lap time of 32.454 seconds, the 24-year-old will lead the field to the green flag for tomorrow’s second race in the Round of 8. The achievement is Byron’s first of the 2022 campaign.
“It’s super cool, these guys have done a good job in qualifying trim the last few weeks and building on it. I felt like I was pretty loose but got some good exits and I was happy with it.” said Byron. “It’s good to get one this year and get the monkey off our backs.”
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Chase Elliott will line up in the third spot while Kyle Larson earned the fifth position for tomorrow race in South Florida. Both drivers advanced into the final round of qualifying, putting three out of four Hendrick Motorsports entries into the top-10.
Elliott also showed speed in practice, clocking in the second-fastest lap time of any driver on track. The No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ended the session .042 seconds off of the top spot.
Noah Gragson returns to drive the No. 48 Ally Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 while Alex Bowman recovers from a concussion sustained in an accident at Texas Motor Speedway. The Las Vegas, Nevada, native will line up in the 24th position for tomorrow’s race.
As the Cup Series fires things up in Miami, Elliott holds the third position in the playoffs standings with a 17-point margin over the final transfer spot. He will look to rebound after a 21st-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last weekend.
Byron enters Homestead-Miami six points below the cutline. However, the Charlotte, North Carolina, native is the defending winner of this race, taking the checkered flag last season in dominating fashion. Byron will look to capitalize on this previous success as he aims to make his first career appearance in the Championship 4.
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Homestead-Miami opened in 1995 and originally mirrored the rectangular design of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. After hosting two NASCAR Xfinity Series races in 1995 and 1996 as well as one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event, the circuit was reconfigured to an oval design with low banked corners. Cup Series action at the South Florida facility began in 1999 but after four races, the track was reconfigured again in 2002. This time, the corners were changed to progressive banking (18-20 degrees). The 1.5-mile circuit has maintained this configuration since then and played host to the season finale from 2002 until 2019.
Tune in tomorrow, Oct. 23, at 2:30 p.m. ET this on NBC, MRN Radio, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).