William Byron will lead the NASCAR Cup Series field to the green flag at Pocono Raceway after earning his third pole of the season Saturday afternoon.
He earned the top spot with a lap of 170.629mph (52.746s). It is his second pole in 10 starts at Pocono.
“It’s really important to have pit stall selection; I feel like I reiterate that a lot with my team in that qualifying position is important, but pit stall selection is really critical,” Byron said. “I’m just really happy to get that number one pit stall. For us, I felt we had a really smooth day. We had some tough conversations after Loudon; we just had a tough weekend and we went into Wednesday and focused hard on building up our Pocono car and using the Chevy sim. Just thanks to those guys for their efforts. Some weeks it’s different than others, but this week they did a great job.
“I’m just thankful for our whole team, the effort we put in. This really is a speed racetrack, and I was nervous coming here – I feel like the Toyotas have been really strong, but we’re inching up on it and I think we’re right there.”
Martin Truex Jr. qualified second at 170.235mph. Truex is the Cup Series championship point leader, and Byron is his closest competitor.
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Kyle Larson qualified third at 170.074mph and Kevin Harvick fourth at 169.750mph. Christopher Bell completed the top five qualifiers at 169.645mph.
Joey Logano qualified sixth at 169.472mph and Tyler Reddick seventh at 169.361mph. Denny Hamlin, the disqualified winner at Pocono last year, qualified eighth at 169.195mph. Austin Cindric qualified ninth at 168.508mph.
Bubba Wallace made the final round and is 10th in the starting lineup but did not post a speed in the final round, bouncing off the wall at the exit of Turn 1 on his lap. The 23XI Racing driver did not finish his lap and drove straight to the garage for his team to assess the damage.
Chase Elliott spun in Turn 2 during his lap. He did not record a qualifying time and was able to keep his car off the wall and will start 35th.
Elliott is the defending winner of the HighPoint.com 400.
Todd Gilliland will start last after his own spin. Gilliland got loose over the bumps in Turn 2 and spun, hitting the outside wall with the left rear of his Front Row Motorsports Ford. Fortunately, there are no significant repairs needed to the car.