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.
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