William Byron won the pole position in Saturday's qualifying for the upcoming Bojangles' Southern 500.
The No. 24 car posted a top lap time of 28.510 seconds and will begin in the first position in Sunday's important race at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. The 21-year-old is also the youngest ever to win the pole at this track, per NASCAR.
Considering pole-sitters have won two of the last three races, this could serve as an important qualifier with just two more events before the playoffs.
Qualifying Results
1. William Byron
2. Brad Keselowski
3. Kyle Larson
4. Kurt Busch
5. Daniel Suarez
6. Jimmie Johnson
7. Joey Logano
8. Chase Elliott
9. Denny Hamlin
10. Ryan Blaney
Full results available at NASCAR.com.
Byron was the talk of the track with the Days of Thunder-inspired paint job, and he backed it up with an impressive run to sit on the pole:
The youngster has won four poles already this year, including for the Daytona 500, although it hasn't led to a win yet in 2019. He will hope the Cole Trickle attitude could be the difference at Darlington.
Byron wasn't able to finish this race in 2018 and finished in 35th place.
Brad Keselowski will be among the favorites after winning this event last year and finishing second in qualifying. He will start alongside Byron while trying to get his fourth win of the season.
Denny Hamlin also shouldn't be counted out despite his ninth-place showing in qualifying. The No. 11 car has finished in the top five in each of the last six races, including two wins, and will likely be among the leaders again Sunday.
Kyle Busch had a rough go of it in qualifying, dealing with car troubles while falling well off the lead:
He ended up No. 33 in the starting line, while his team now deals with the fallout of whatever went wrong under the hood. Starting in Row 17 of 20 will make things difficult Sunday.
The Bojangles' Southern 500 is set to begin Sunday at 6 p.m. ET, providing drivers with their second straight evening race around the week off last weekend. As the penultimate race in the Monster Energy Cup regular season, the pressure is on for anyone trying to sneak into the playoffs.
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