Led by William Byron, Hendrick sweeps Charlotte Roval front row

Byron’s average lap speed of 103.198 mph in the final 10-minute session of group qualifying gave him the pole for Sunday’s Bank of America 400 on Charlotte’s 17-turn, 2.28-mile combination oval and infield road course.

Byron, 21, also won the pole for the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte in May.

Byron’s Hendrick Motorsports’ teammate, Alex Bowman, ended up second-fastest (103.078 mph) and will join him on the front row. Joey Logano ended up third (103.027 mph). 

Jimmie Johnson was fourth, giving HMS three of the top-five starting positions, and Clint Bowyer ended up fifth after missing the backstretch chicane on his first attempt in the final round.

The pole is the fifth of Byron’s NASCAR Cup Series career, all coming this season.

“The guys did a great job with this car. It really takes every corner getting around this race track to get a pole,” Byron said. “I knew we could qualify in the top-five but I was really wanting a pole and really kind of went out there and got it.

“Max (Papis) and I were out at the karting track on Monday and we took (crew chief) Chad (Knaus) out there with us and it helped. He did a good job.

“You know, road courses were a big struggle for me when I first started racing and I’ve progressively gotten better and I really enjoy them now. Now, it’s all about racing and it’s good to have two hometown poles – that’s pretty cool.”

Byron has started on the front row of all three road courses this season (he started second at both Sonoma and Watkins Glen).

Rounding out the top-12 starters are Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Blaney, Paul Menard, Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher.

Round 1

Byron led a Chevrolet sweep of the top three positions in the first round with an average lap speed of 103.237 mph.

Larson was second (103.175 mph) and Johnson was third (102.612 mph). Bowyer was fourth and Keselowski rounded out the top-five.

Also advancing to the final round were Bowman, Buescher, Logano, Harvick, Truex, Blaney and Menard.

About 13 minutes into the session, Elliott locked up his rear-tires in the frontstretch chicane and spun out but didn’t do any damage to his No. 9 Chevrolet.

Elliott ended up 19th-fastest in the session.

Among those failing to advance were Daniel Suarez, Erik Jones, Kyle Busch, Elliott, Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Time	Gap	Mph
1	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	1'20.932		103.198
2	88	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	1'21.026	0.094	103.078
3	22	Joey Logano		Ford	1'21.058	0.126	103.037
4	48	Jimmie Johnson		Chevrolet	1'21.172	0.240	102.893
5	14	Clint Bowyer		Ford	1'21.215	0.283	102.838
6	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford	1'21.576	0.644	102.383
7	42	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	1'21.595	0.663	102.359
8	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	1'22.068	1.136	101.769
9	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	1'22.094	1.162	101.737
10	21	Paul Menard		Ford	1'22.215	1.283	101.587
11	2	Brad Keselowski		Ford	1'22.297	1.365	101.486
12	37	Chris Buescher		Chevrolet	1'22.327	1.395	101.449
13	41	Daniel Suarez		Ford	1'21.920	0.988	101.953
14	47	Ryan Preece		Chevrolet	1'21.928	0.996	101.943
15	20	Erik Jones		Toyota	1'21.973	1.041	101.887
16	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	1'21.978	1.046	101.881
17	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota	1'21.986	1.054	101.871
18	95	Matt DiBenedetto		Toyota	1'21.993	1.061	101.862
19	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	1'22.098	1.166	101.732
20	8	Daniel Hemric		Chevrolet	1'22.127	1.195	101.696
21	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Ford	1'22.232	1.30	101.566
22	34	Michael McDowell		Ford	1'22.252	1.320	101.542
23	1	Kurt Busch		Chevrolet	1'22.317	1.385	101.461
24	6	Ryan Newman		Ford	1'22.572	1.640	101.148
25	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.		Chevrolet	1'22.582	1.650	101.136
26	32	Corey Lajoie		Ford	1'22.630	1.698	101.077
27	38	David Ragan		Ford	1'23.088	2.156	100.520
28	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	1'23.099	2.167	100.507
29	13	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	1'23.121	2.189	100.480
30	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	1'23.232	2.30	100.346
31	51	Cody Ware		Chevrolet	1'24.220	3.288	99.169
32	00	Landon Cassill		Chevrolet	1'24.690	3.758	98.618
33	66	Timmy Hill		Toyota	1'25.315	4.383	97.896
34	53	Josh Bilicki		Chevrolet	1'25.572	4.640	97.602
35	52	Garrett Smithley		Chevrolet	1'25.782	4.850	97.363
36	15	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet
37	36	Matt Tifft		Ford
38	77	Reed Sorenson		Chevrolet
39	27	Joe Nemechek		Chevrolet
40	96	Parker Kligerman		Toyota