NASCAR qualifying lineup for Sunday: William Byron takes pole at Phoenix Raceway

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Shortly after Alex Bowman claimed the pole for Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series event, it was the Cup Series’ turn to hit the track at Phoenix Raceway. 

And as it turned out, it would be a Hendrick Motorsports qualifying sweep. 

William Byron, the last driver on track, snatched the top spot with the final lap and a time of 26.93 to start on the pole for Sunday’s main event. It marked the organization’s first pole of the season. 

Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott will join him in the top 10 and will start sixth. Kyle Larson will start 17th in Sunday’s race while Bowman will round out the organization, rolling off 32nd. 

Byron, Larson and Elliott each have a win at the 1-mile oval. 

Sunday’s main event is slated for a 3:30 p.m. start and will air on FS1. 

The race will give teams the choice of two tire compounds – a primary tire and an option tire, the latter of which will have red lettering on the outer wall and is designed to be faster on the short run but wear more in the long run. Teams were given both sets for a practice session before qualifying with a myriad of different strategies being used. 

Byron was the fastest among the Hendrick Motorsports stable with a single lap of 27.248. But while Larson was 26th in single-lap time, he was at the top of the board in 25- and 30-lap averages, choosing to focus on long-run speed and tire falloff. 

“Overall, I thought my HendrickCars.com Chevy was pretty decent, so we’ll see,” Larson said. “You’ve got to make smart decisions when you have two different tires like that. So, we’ll talk about it a lot more, get through qualifying and then see what kind of adjustments we need to make.”