William Byron etched his name in the record books with a lap of 172.487 mph to win the pole for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. As one of the first drivers to hit the track after qualifying outside the top 20 (21st) at Bristol Motor Speedway last week, he was forced to watch nearly the entire field assault his lead. No one really came close to matching his performance in Turns 3 & 4.
In winning the pole, Byron joins Fireball Roberts (1962) and Bill Elliott (1985) as the only drivers to win poles in the Daytona 500, Coke 600, and Southern 500 in the same year. Tying that record was not enough; Byron is now the youngest driver to ever win a Southern 500 pole. Last year he qualified 10th but an engine failure on Lap 329 relegated him to 35th.
With his fourth pole, Byron ties Kevin Harvick for the most this year. Harvick qualified 11th for Sunday’s race.
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Brad Keselowski came closest to Byron at a deficit of .066 seconds. His outside pole puts him back at the front of the pack to start at Darlington after a one-year hiatus. Last year he qualified 13th, which snapped a four-race streak of starts on the first three rows. Keselowski won last year after his modest start.
Kyle Larson was on the outside pole last year. He finished third in the race. This year, he starts one position further back in third. In his first three Darlington starts, Larson was forced to overcome modest qualification efforts outside the top 15, but he swept the top 10 in finishes. Track position this week will provide his best opportunity to win with two races remaining in the regular season.
Kurt Busch rounds out Row 2 to earn his fourth consecutive top-10 start. He has finished in the top 10 in three of those races.
Jimmie Johnson desperately needs a good run to stop tongues from wagging. He is not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs yet, but a win is really what is needed to get him into the contention. With a lap of 171.202 seconds, he posted the sixth-fastest time in qualification – marking just the second time in the past six years that he started in the top 10. Johnson qualified ninth and finished 33rd with crash damage in 2016.
Last year’s pole winner Denny Hamlin failed to get back onto the front row, but he extends a streak of top-10 starts to 10 races. Good track position has been a huge part of Hamlin’s success as he has two wins, two more runner up finishes, and eight total top-10s in his last nine races after starting on one of the first five rows.
Joey Logano will start seventh and extends his streak of top-10 starts to six consecutive. He has finished in the top five three times after qualifying well and outside the top 15 twice.
Erik Jones had two top-10 starts and finishes in his two previous Darlington starts. He was unable to back up his qualification effort and will roll off the grid 15th. He was fast on long runs on Friday, however, and should be able to challenge for his third straight top-10 finish.
Chase Elliott was on a pole run until he bobbled in Turn 3. While he was forced to catch his car, he lost momentum and fell to eighth on the grid. Still, this is his first top-10 start in five Darlington races. Last year Elliott qualified 11th and finished fifth.
Martin Truex Jr.’s streak of four top-10 starts ended with his 22nd-place qualification effort.
It was another bad qualification for Kyle Busch. On his timed lap, something failed – either motor or transmission, and as a result Busch will roll off the grid outside the top 20 for the third straight week in 33rd. So far it has not hurt him much, however; he qualified 22nd at Michigan International Speedway and finished sixth. He started 31st at Bristol Motor Speedway before finishing fourth.
But this is Darlington and pressing hard in the opening laps could cause excessive tire wear that will cost Busch at the end of the run. He had seven consecutive top-10 starts at Darlington prior to this weekend. He finished in the top 10 in six of those races.
Matt DiBenedetto struggled to get through inspection. With multiple failures, he will lose his car chief for the weekend. Whatever envelope they were pushing might not have been worth it as he qualified only 19th.
In a backup car that saw its first laps in time trials, Aric Almirola posted the 30th fastest lap and has a long road ahead of him.
