Back-To-Back: William Byron Wins Second Consecutive NASCAR Cup Series Pole At COTA

Story By: CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS – AUSTIN, TX – William Byron says he’s starting to find his rhythm. For the second time in as many tries, the Hendrick Motorsports hot shoe powered his No. 24 machine to the top of the leaderboard and claimed the pole for Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas (COTA).

Following his Daytona 500 win to open the 2024 campaign and six wins last season, Byron’s lap of 129.636 seconds at 94.696 mph, earned him his first pole position of the year and 13th of his career. In addition to a fast race car, the 26-year-old Charlotte, N.C. native attributed some of his success in Saturday’s qualifying to finally settling into a routine after a chaotic yet rewarding start to the season.

“Honestly, this has been my first normal week since the 500, just being able to be back home and be in my rhythm and be able to focus on driving my race car,” said Byron, who will look to build off last season’s fifth-place finish. “I feel really happy with how the week’s gone and feel very fresh going into the race.”

Byron will be joined on the front row by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs, who was edged for the pole position by a mere 0.015 of a second on the 20-turn, 3.41-mile permanent road course layout. Gibbs was able to fend off his fellow Toyota-powered drivers Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell as the three were separated by just 0.279 of a second. Reddick, of 23XI Racing, will start third while Gibbs’ JGR teammate Bell will start fourth. Corey Lajoie of Spire Motorsports landed Chevrolet the final top-five position in the starting lineup.

It was a banner day overall for Joe Gibbs Racing as the four-car organization secured half of the top-eight qualifying positions. In addition to Gibbs and Bell, Martin Truex Jr. qualified seventh and Denny Hamlin eighth.

Green flag is scheduled for 2:49 p.m. CT Sunday.

NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying – EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix
Circuit of The Americas
Austin, Texas
Saturday, March 23, 2024

(24) William Byron, Chevrolet, 94.696 mph.
(54) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 94.685 mph.
(45) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 94.565 mph.
(20) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 94.482 mph.
(7) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 94.096 mph.
(1) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 93.949 mph.
(19) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 93.773 mph.
(11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 93.604 mph.
(9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 93.420 mph.
(23) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 85.505 mph.
(2) Austin Cindric, Ford, 0.000 mph.
(16) Shane Van Gisbergen(i), Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
(51) Justin Haley, Ford, 0.000 mph.
(13) AJ Allmendinger(i), Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
(5) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
(8) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
(48) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
(77) Carson Hocevar #, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
(99) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
(17) Chris Buescher, Ford, 0.000 mph.
(3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
(42) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
(15) Kaz Grala #, Ford, 0.000 mph.
(41) Ryan Preece, Ford, 0.000 mph.
(50) Kamui Kobayashi, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
(38) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 0.000 mph.
(34) Michael McDowell, Ford, 0.000 mph.
(12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 0.000 mph.
(21) Harrison Burton, Ford, 0.000 mph.
(47) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
(4) Josh Berry #, Ford, 0.000 mph.
(14) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 0.000 mph.
(31) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
(71) Zane Smith #, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
(22) Joey Logano, Ford, 0.000 mph.
(6) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 0.000 mph.
(66) Timmy Hill(i), Ford, 0.000 mph.
(43) Erik Jones, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
(10) Noah Gragson, Ford, 0.000 mph.