Starting Lineup for the NASCAR Cup Xfinity 500 at Martinsville

Scott Kinser-Imagn Images

William Byron, with his back against the wall heading into the final race of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 8, snagged the pole position for Sunday's Xfinity 500 at Martinsville.

The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet turned a fast lap of 19.286 seconds (98.185 mph) to secure the pole by just 0.002 seconds over Ty Gibbs, the driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supra.

Kyle Larson, who comes into the weekend above the cutline, will start third, and he is joined in Row 2 by another driver, like Byron, in a must-win situation -- Joey Logano.

Denny Hamlin secured the fifth starting spot, but he had issues getting his car to start to get onto the track, which may result in the team needing to make unapproved adjustments after Saturday's on-track sessions. The team is diagnosing the issue now.

Fortunately for Hamlin, he is locked into the Championship 4 next weekend at Phoenix Raceway regardless of what happens in this weekend's race.

Official Starting Lineup for the NASCAR Cup Series Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway (race 35 of 36):

Pos	Car	Driver	Lap time	Speed
	24	William Byron (P)	19.286	98.185
	54	Ty Gibbs	19.288	98.175
	5	Kyle Larson (P)	19.315	98.038
	22	Joey Logano (P)	19.322	98.002
	11	Denny Hamlin (P)	19.347	97.876
	41	Cole Custer	19.348	97.871
	8	Kyle Busch	19.352	97.850
	9	Chase Elliott (P)	19.353	97.845
	19	Chase Briscoe (P)	19.376	97.729
	2	Austin Cindric	19.393	97.643
	71	Michael McDowell	19.399	97.613
	20	Christopher Bell (P)	19.401	97.603
	1	Ross Chastain	19.408	97.568
	45*	Tyler Reddick	19.411	97.553
	77	Carson Hocevar	19.417	97.523
	34	Todd Gilliland	19.433	97.442
	48	Alex Bowman	19.437	97.422
	60	Ryan Preece	19.438	97.417
	6	Brad Keselowski	19.453	97.342
	3	Austin Dillon	19.455	97.332
	23*	Bubba Wallace	19.459	97.312
	88	Shane van Gisbergen #	19.462	97.297
	38*	Zane Smith	19.505	97.083
	42	John Hunter Nemechek	19.511	97.053
	35*	Riley Herbst #	19.520	97.008
	10	Ty Dillon	19.526	96.978
	21	Josh Berry	19.530	96.959
	43	Erik Jones	19.530	96.959
	17	Chris Buescher	19.559	96.815
	99	Daniel Suarez	19.560	96.810
	12	Ryan Blaney (P)	19.606	96.583
	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	19.629	96.470
	16	AJ Allmendinger	19.648	96.376
	7	Justin Haley	19.670	96.268
	4*	Noah Gragson	19.704	96.102
	51	Cody Ware	19.832	95.482
	66*	Casey Mears (i)	19.895	95.180

(P) indicates NASCAR Cup Series Playoff driver
* indicates "Open" entry
# indicates Rookie of the Year contender
(i) indicates a driver ineligible to score points