William Byron beats Ty Gibbs to NASCAR Cup pole at COTA

Byron, who was fastest overall in Saturday’s extended practice, carried that speed into qualifying. He was fastest in the first round and his average lap speed of 94.696 mph was good enough to top Gibbs (94.685 mph), who was the last car to complete a lap.

The pole is Byron’s first of the 2024 season and 13th of his career. After starting on pole in this race a year ago, Byron led 28 laps and finished fifth.

“We’ve just got to go through the process of the race,” Byron said. “Just manage the runs, have enough long run speed. I feel we got a good balance with our car.

“We’ve been struggling to have smooth races, so this is a good start.”

Tyler Reddick ended up third, Christopher Bell fourth and Corey Lajoie rounded out the top five.

Completing the top 10 lineup are Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott and Bubba Wallace, who spun out on his first qualifying attempt in the final round.

Round 1 / Group B

Byron led the first round with an average laps speed of 95.079 mph.

Bell was second fastest (94.954 mph) and Chastain was third (94.791 mph). Also advancing to the final round of qualifying were Elliott and Truex, who knocked Austin Cindric out of the final transfer spot in the last minute.

Among those who failed to advance were Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman and Kamui Kobayashi.

Joey Logano and Daniel Suarez each one of his qualifying attempts disallowed during the session for short cutting the course in Turn 5.

Round 1 / Group A

Toyotas led the way in Group A with Reddick topping the speed chart with an average lap speed of 95.065 mph.

Gibbs was second quick (95.018 mph) while Reddick’s teaMMAte Wallace was third (94.741 mph). Also advancing to the final round of qualifying were Hamlin and LaJoie.

“To have legitimate pace on a road course is something we’re really proud of. We’ve worked so hard,” LaJoie said. “And then you have Kamui (Kobayashi) and SVG, real world-class racers coming into NASCAR with fast cars.”

Among those who failed to advance were three-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen and his Kaulig Racing teaMMAte, A.J. Allmendinger.

Following van Gisbergen’s first qualifying attempt he missed the entrance to pit road and had to go back around the track before making a second attempt. He came up just short of LaJoie for the final transfer position.

Michael McDowell had one of his qualifying attempts disallowed during the session for short cutting the course.