William Byron Knocks Joey Logano Off for NASCAR Cup Pole at Phoenix
Man, would you look at that. Without a convoluted qualifying format, there was still plenty of drama on Saturday's qualifying session for the Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway. William Byron, the final car to go out in the single-round qualifying session, was able to knock Joey Logano off of the top of the scoring monitor, and in doing so claimed the pole position for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race.
Byron's pole-winning run lap was a 26.930 second circuit around the 1-mile oval in Avondale, AZ, which amounted to a 133.680 mph average speed. Byron's time clocked in 0.098 seconds faster than Logano's.
After climbing from his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Byron explained that he didn't have a perfect lap by any means.
"I did not hit my marks," Byron explained. "I was sideways, I just carried a ton of entry speed I felt like I missed the middle of the corner and just coming off the dog leg I was so loose, I just was going to try to commit to the exit to see how much I could get out of the exits even those I missed the centers. Just a fast car."
A fast car can overcome mistakes on the race track, and Byron credited his team with providing him the car capable of pulling off the pole position on Saturday afternoon.
"Thanks to my whole team. They've been bringing great cars and we've been doing a really good job executing, so definitely want to go out there and have a great run tomorrow, I feel like our car was really good in race trim," Byron said.
For Logano, it was a heartbreaking end to the session, as he was hoping to hang on for a milestone pole for his Team Penske organization.
"I don't like William Byron anymore," Logano joked. "I just got done telling [my crew chief] Paul [Wolfe] up there it would really suck if the last car beat us, wouldn't it? And that's what happened. But that was going to be Penske's 700th pole across all of motorsports. But we'll have to go and try to do that next week."
While the quest for Penske's 700th pole position will have to wait for another day, Logano feels confident that his car is close to where it needs to be to perform in the race.
"But overall, I am proud of the effort that our Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang team did throughout the day. We have a little bit of work to do in race trim, but I think we're just a couple of adjustments from where we need to be," Logano said.
Behind the front row starters will be Carson Hocevar, who notched the third starting spot in the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, and he will be joined by Josh Berry, who secured the fourth position in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford.
Erik Jones, Chase Elliott, Michael McDowell, Justin Haley, Tyler Reddick, and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for Sunday's event at Phoenix.
Christopher Bell, who is looking to secure his third consecutive race win in the NASCAR Cup Series competition after winning at Atlanta and COTA, will start from the 11th position in the Shriners Children's 500, a race he won a season ago.
Katherine Legge, who will become the first female racer to start an event in the NASCAR Cup Series since Danica Patrick competed in the 2018 Daytona 500, will start from the 37th and final position on the starting grid. While she was the slowest driver in the qualifying session, the Live Fast Motorsports driver did a great job acclimating to the car throughout practice and qualifying, and by the end of her qualifying run, she was in the ballpark speed-wise with the field.
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Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.