In the final round of NASCAR Cup Series group qualifying at Indianapolis, William Byron took the pole for the series’ first event on the road course.
On Sunday morning, Byron’s Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet clocked in at 100.044 mph (1m27.765s). He was the only driver to reach speeds of over 100 mph.
Byron spent time in the Chevrolet simulator with NTT IndyCar Series driver Rinus VeeKay earlier this week and picked up some tips.
“Honestly, that might have helped my lap because I feel like through Turns 13 and 14 as you get up on the oval and go back to the right, he had an interesting technique there with the brakes,” Byron said after winning the pole. “So, I was quizzing him on it and trying to figure out what I could learn from it. Obviously, they use a lot more brake, they’re able to turn a lot faster than we are, but it was really cool to see how up to speed he was and I thank him for doing that. It was really cool.”
Chase Briscoe, a rookie from Indiana, was second fastest with a speed of 99.561 mph. It’s not just Briscoe’s best qualifying performance of the season, but it’s also the first time he’ll start in the top ten.
Chase Elliott was third (99.518 mph), Kyle Larson was fourth (99.433), and Daniel Suarez was fifth (99.518 mph) (99.291 mph).
Joey Logano qualified seventh (99.201 mph), AJ Allmendinger eighth (99.193 mph), Ross Chastain ninth (99.144 mph), and Cole Custer #10 (99.144 mph) (99.144 mph).
In his final Cup Series start of the season, Austin Cindric qualified 13th. Cindric has competed in past Cup Series road course races, but he emphasized that he has yet to complete one, which is the major agenda for Sunday afternoon.
“My goal today is to finish,” Cindric said. “At the end of the day, that’s all I want to do. I can sit here and tell you I want to go out and win the race, but we haven’t closed out a race in quite some time on the 33 car, so that’s my number one goal and everything else is a bonus.”
Denny Hamlin will start 14th in the race for the regular-season championship with Kyle Larson. Hamlin set a new track record of 99.326 mph.
Several well-known drivers will emerge from the pack. Kurt Busch will start 20th, Kyle Busch will start 21st, Alex Bowman will start 24th, Kevin Harvick will start 25th, and Brad Keselowski will start 31st.
The uniforms of NASCAR racing drivers are currently available at the following websites for a reasonable price:
