Led by Byron, Hendrick sweeps front row at Road America

William Byron ended up winning the pole with an average lap speed of 110.359 mph, just edging his Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson (110.205 mph). A.J. Allmendinger ended up third (109.844 mph).

The pole is the first for Byron this season and the sixth of his career.

“We struggled a little bit off the truck but we had some good changes in mind,” said Byron, who was 11th fastest in practice on Saturday. “The car was really fast in qualifying.

“It was fast in race trim the last run and I feel like we just kind of went back to the basics on the road courses. We’ve struggled this year on road courses and we kind of got back to a basic set-up and put it all together today.

“Thanks to Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) and all the guys for working really hard. Great to see Hendrick 1-2 on the front row.”

Rounding out the top-five in the final 10-minunte round were Tyler Reddick, who spun after completing his hot lap, and reigning Xfinity Series champion Austin Cindric.

Completing the top-12 starters are Denny Hamlin, Matt DiBenedetto, Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez and Chris Buescher.

Round 1

Cindric, running a partial Cup schedule this season, topped the first 25-minute qualifying session with an average lap speed of 111.132 mph.

Allmendinger ended up second (110.573 mph) and William Byron (110.542 mph) was third. Larson and Chastain rounded out the top-five.

Also advancing to the final round were Hamlin, Reddick, Suarez, Truex, DiBenedetto, Bowman and Buescher.

Early in the first round, Brad Keselowski went off the track and through the dirt, which appeared to do some damage to the nose of his No. 2 Ford.

About 14 minutes into the first round, the No. 78 of Kyle Tilley came to a stop near Turn 3, which brought out a red flag. Tilley had to be towed back to pit road.

With just over two minutes remaining, Bubba Wallace suddenly slowed during his qualifying lap and ended up stopping on the track near Turn 11, which brought out a red flag. Wallace also required a push back to pit road.

The late-race red flag prevented any more teams to from starting a qualifying lap before time expired so Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch, Chase Briscoe, Austin Dillon and Ty Dillon were never able to complete a lap at speed.

Kyle Busch, who moved to a backup car after a wreck in Saturday’s practice, also did not take a lap and will begin Sunday’s race without a single on-track lap with his No. 18 Toyota.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	1	2'12.049			110.359
2	5	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	1	2'12.233	0.184	0.184	110.205
3	16	A.J. Allmendinger		Chevrolet	1	2'12.668	0.619	0.435	109.844
4	8	Tyler Reddick		Chevrolet	1	2'12.711	0.662	0.043	109.809
5	33	Austin Cindric		Ford	1	2'12.760	0.711	0.049	109.768
6	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	1	2'12.849	0.800	0.089	109.694
7	21	Matt DiBenedetto		Ford	1	2'12.887	0.838	0.038	109.663
8	42	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	1	2'13.389	1.340	0.502	109.250
9	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	1	2'13.602	1.553	0.213	109.076
10	48	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	1	2'13.701	1.652	0.099	108.995
11	99	Daniel Suarez		Chevrolet	1	2'13.736	1.687	0.035	108.967
12	17	Chris Buescher		Ford	1	2'14.151	2.102	0.415	108.630

13	20	Christopher Bell		Toyota	1	2'12.964	1.834	0.135	109.600
14	22	Joey Logano		Ford	1	2'12.967	1.837	0.003	109.597
15	41	Cole Custer		Ford	3	2'12.986	1.856	0.019	109.581
16	1	Kurt Busch		Chevrolet	2	2'13.363	2.233	0.377	109.272
17	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	1	2'13.561	2.431	0.198	109.110
18	34	Michael McDowell		Ford	1	2'13.580	2.450	0.019	109.094
19	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	2	2'13.607	2.477	0.027	109.072
20	2	Brad Keselowski		Ford	1	2'13.786	2.656	0.179	108.926
21	43	Erik Jones		Chevrolet	1	2'13.840	2.710	0.054	108.882
22	77	Justin Haley		Chevrolet	1	2'14.026	2.896	0.186	108.731
23	7	Corey Lajoie		Chevrolet	1	2'14.171	3.041	0.145	108.614
24	38	Anthony Alfredo		Ford	1	2'14.773	3.643	0.602	108.128
25	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford	1	2'14.800	3.670	0.027	108.107
26	15	James Davison		Chevrolet	1	2'14.870	3.740	0.070	108.051
27	52	Josh Bilicki		Ford	1	2'15.098	3.968	0.228	107.868
28	6	Ryan Newman		Ford	3	2'15.693	4.563	0.595	107.395
29	51	Cody Ware		Chevrolet	1	2'16.182	5.052	0.489	107.010
30	78	Kyle Tilley		Ford	2	2'16.801	5.671	0.619	106.526
31	53	Ryan Eversley		Chevrolet	1	2'16.816	5.686	0.015	106.514
32	37	Ryan Preece		Chevrolet	1	2'18.531	7.401	1.715	105.195
33	00	Quin Houff		Chevrolet	1	2'20.213	9.083	1.682	103.933
34	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	2	9'55.698	7'44.568	7'35.485	24.463
35	14	Chase Briscoe		Ford	2	10'43.099	8'31.969	47.401	22.660
36	23	Bubba Wallace		Toyota	1	15'33.694	13'22.564	4'50.595	15.608
37	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	1	17'01.040	14'49.910	1'27.346	14.273
38	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Chevrolet	1	18'38.206	16'27.076	1'37.166	13.032
39	96	Ty Dillon		Toyota	1	19'51.940	17'40.810	1'13.734	12.226
40	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota