William Byron laid down a lap of 26.930 at a speed of 133.680 mph to win the pole at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday (March 8).
Byron will lead the field to the green flag for Shriners Children’s 500 on Sunday, March 9, alongside defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano, who qualified second, with a time of 27.028. Byron was the only driver to clock a time under 27 seconds. Logano was at the top of the pylon for a large chunk of the session, but Byron, as the last car out, knocked the No. 22 off the pole.
It marks Byron’s 14th career pole and first since Circuit of the Americas last year. Byron previously won the pole for fall of 2023 Phoenix race.
Carson Hocevar, who was fastest in practice, will start third. Josh Berry qualified fourth, and Erik Jones, the fastest Toyota, rounded out the top five.
Michael McDowell, who was runner-up to his Spire Motorsports teammate in practice will start sixth. Chase Elliott is seventh, and Justin Haley made it all three Spire cars in the top eight. Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin completed the top 10.
With 37 cars entered, no one was sent home. Katherine Legge, in the lone open car, qualified 37th.
Cup Starting Lineup for Phoenix
The Shriners Children’s 500 will start at 3:30 p.m. ET. FOX Sports 1 and MRN Radio will broadcast the event.
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.