William Byron dropped the hammer in qualifying for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
Driving a “Days of Thunder” inspired Hendrick Autoguard/City Chevrolet, Byron went out early and posted a fast lap of 28.510 seconds, 172.487 mph to take the pole for Sunday’s race.
“The car was really good for us,” Byron said. “We luckily did a mock run yesterday. We had enough time to do one at the end of the first practice session and I feel like that helped us just propel our qualifying effort a little bit more.”
The pole-winning run gives Byron the distinction of being the youngest driver to win the pole in the 70th season of racing at “The Track Too Tough to Tame” at the age of 21 years, 9 months, 2 days. He also joins Fireball Roberts (1962) and Bill Elliott (1985) as the only drivers to win the pole for Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600 and Southern 500 in the same season.
“It seems like we put more into those qualifying efforts just knowing how important track position is and knowing if we can have the number one pit stall all day long and/or all night long, it would be a big deal,” Byron said. “We’ll see what happens. It’s a really long race. I’ve just got to run all 500 miles. We’re in a good spot with the points, so we can be aggressive.”
Darlington Paint Schemes | Pole Winners
Defending race winner Brad Keselowski qualified second with a lap of 28.576 seconds, 172.088 mph.
Kyle Larson, who finished third last season and has combined to lead 408 laps in the last two races, qualified third.
“Last year, it was the win we didn’t get that I wanted to get the most,” Larson said. “I don’t really think I did anything wrong, I felt like I ran a perfect race. There wasn’t anything I could do differently to have a different outcome. I just hope things go differently this year. I think our car is as good or better than it was last year.”
Larson’s teammate Kurt Busch and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Daniel Suarez rounded out the top five. Suarez currently holds the 16th spot in the standings, 2 points ahead of his teammate Clint Bowyer, who qualified 13th.
Three-time Darlington winner Jimmie Johnson, who is 18th in the standings – 26 points back, will start sixth.
“We’ve picked up from what we had in practice and we are ready to go,” Johnson said.
Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, two-time Southern 500 winner Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney completed the top 10.
Kyle Busch qualified 33rd after experiencing an engine issue to end a seven-race streak of starting in the top 10 at Darlington. His team changed the engine and he will start at the rear of the field.
Motor Racing Network’s live coverage of Sunday’s race will begin at 5 p.m. ET.
