William Byron acquired the Busch Pole for Sunday’s Jockey Made in America 250 introduced by Kwik Trip (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Byron finished off the board with a lap of 132.049 seconds at 110.359 miles each hour in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Byron’s partner, Kyle Larson, will begin close by him on the first line with a lap of 132.233 seconds at 110.205 mph in the No. 5 Chevrolet.
“We struggled a little bit off the truck but we had some good changes in mind,” Byron told CNBC after his pole run. “It was fast in race trim on the long run … It’s nice to see Hendrick 1-2 and on the pole.”
AJ Allmendinger will begin third for Sunday’s race at the 4.048-mile course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, trailed by Tyler Reddick and Austin Cindric. Denny Hamlin, Matt DiBenedetto, Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez and Chris Buescher balanced the best 12 drivers in the final round.
The greatest surprise of the first round was Chase Elliott’s beginning spot. The champ of five of the last seven street course races will begin 34th after the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports couldn’t finish a lap as alerts came out during the multiple times he was endeavoring his full speed lap.
There were a pair of cautions in the initial 20-minute round of qualifying. The first came early in the session when the No. 78 LiveFast Motorsports Ford of Kyle Tilley slowed down on course, while the second came in the end minutes when Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota lost force during his qualifying lap.