AUSTIN, Texas — Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron scored his first pole position of the season, after topping the charts in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session at Circuit of The Americas.
Byron outpaced 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick and Team Penske driver Austin Cindric with a lap of 93.882 mph.
“It’s good, it’s been an up and down weekend,” said Byron, who is also competing in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race, but ironically had his potential Xfinity Series pole-winning time disallowed during Friday Xfinity Series qualifying for exceeding track limits. “In the Cup car, we had a little bit of work to do yesterday, just on overall balance, and we corrected some areas and some areas for me as a driver.
“Good to get the pole, but really tomorrow is what matters.”
Behind the front three, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar driver Jordan Taylor wheeled the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to fourth on the grid, filling in for an injured Chase Elliott.
“It was honestly a full new experience, and yesterday [in practice], I felt like I was out of control 90 percent of the time,” said. “Today, I felt like I knew what the car was doing. We made good set-up changes to help with that and give me a better sense of where the grip was. … Today felt super smooth, and it felt like I was driving my [sports] car, something super familiar for me.
“The Hendrick guys have done an amazing job.”
Taylor was followed by Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez in fifth.
The rest of the top 10 was dominated by Chevy, with the likes of Alex Bowman, A.J. Allmendinger, Erik Jones, Kyle Busch and Noah Gragson all filling in the final five rows for Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix.
Making his second start in the Cup Series, 2007 Formula 1 champion Kimi Raikkonen qualified his No. 91 Trackhouse Racing Chevy in 22nd. Behind Raikkonen, fellow F-1 champion Jenson Button finished his time trials in 24th for Rick Ware Racing in the No. 15 Ford Mustang.
Returning for his second race of the season in a part-time schedule, seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson will start 31st on Sunday, aboard the No. 84 Legacy Motor Club Chevrolet.
NTT IndyCar Series regular Conor Daly wheeled The Money Team Racing entry to a 35th-place qualifying effort.