{"id":23242,"date":"2019-02-10T14:59:14","date_gmt":"2019-02-10T20:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=23242"},"modified":"2019-02-10T15:06:54","modified_gmt":"2019-02-10T21:06:54","slug":"william-byron-leads-hendrick-sweep-of-daytona-500-qualifying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/10\/william-byron-leads-hendrick-sweep-of-daytona-500-qualifying\/","title":{"rendered":"William Byron leads Hendrick sweep of Daytona 500 qualifying"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Paired for the first time with crew chief Chad Knaus<\/strong>, sophomore driver William Byron<\/strong> put his No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 on the pole for the Feb. 17 Daytona 500 on Sunday (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), leading a Hendrick Motorsports sweep of the top four spots and extending that organization\u2019s dominance in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> qualifying at Daytona International Speedway<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"

William Byron, driver of the #24 Axalta Chevrolet, poses for a photo after winning the pole award with second place Alex Bowman, driver of the #88 Nationwide Chevrolet, during qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 61st Annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 10, 2019 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Byron edged last year\u2019s pole winner, Alex Bowman, by .036 seconds for the top starting spot in the 61st running of NASCAR\u2019s most prestigious race with a lap at 194.305 seconds (46.319 seconds) in the final round of knockout qualifying.<\/p>\n

Bowman\u2019s lap at 194.154 seconds knocked seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson (193.807 mph) off the front row for the 500. Johnson, in turn, beat two-time Daytona 500 pole winner Chase Elliott (193.782 mph) for the third fastest lap by .006 seconds.<\/p>\n

The Busch Pole Award was the first for Byron in 37 tries. The 21-year-old is the eighth driver to contribute to the total of 13 Daytona 500 poles won by Hendrick Motorsports, which won its fifth straight.<\/p>\n

Only Byron and Bowman are locked into their starting sports for next Sunday\u2019s race. The remaining 38 starting positions will be determined in Thursday night\u2019s Gander RV Duel 150-mile qualifying races (7 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt we were prepared and ready and this was sort of the first step of our process together,\u201d Byron said of his new partnership with Knaus, who moved to the No. 24 car this year after winning seven titles as Johnson\u2019s crew chief.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, it goes well next Sunday. We can kind of hang out during the Duel races, learn a little bit. It\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

William Byron, driver of the #24 Axalta Chevrolet, poses for a photo after winning the pole award during qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 61st Annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 10, 2019 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The pole was the 700th for Chevrolet in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.<\/p>\n

As fast his car was, Byron acknowledged his lap wasn\u2019t quite perfect.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lacked a little bit getting up to speed,\u201d Byron said. \u201cI think a little bit too much wheel spin. This thing is fast, and it\u2019s obviously a lot of credit to the guys. I\u2019m looking forward to next Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a session that both establishes the front row for next Sunday and sets the lineups for the Duels, Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Daniel Hemric qualified fifth in his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, giving Chevys the top five laps in the final round.<\/p>\n

Reigning Cup champion Joey Logano was sixth in the fastest Ford\u2014the first competitive outing in the Cup series for the new Mustang\u2014and 2017 champ Martin Truex Jr. was seventh in the quickest Toyota entry.<\/p>\n

Clint Bowyer, Brad Keselowski, 2018 Daytona 500 winner Austin Dillon, Paul Menard and Denny Hamlin completed the top 12. The last driver to make a qualifying run in the first round, Truex knocked Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch (13th) out of the top 12.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ran about what we thought we would, maybe a tick better,\u201d Busch said. \u201cDidn\u2019t expect the rest of the field to be as fast as they are, so we\u2019re a little farther down on the lineup than we\u2019d like to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two of the six drivers in open cars\u2014those without charters\u2014locked themselves into the Daytona 500. The first was Tyler Reddick, who was a strong 16th in the first round. The second was Casey Mears, who edged the non-chartered No. 71 Chevrolet of Ryan Truex by .028 seconds for the 26th fastest lap.<\/p>\n

Truex, Brendan Gaughan (31st), Parker Kligerman (36th) and Joey Gase (42nd) will vie in Thursday night\u2019s Gander RV Duels for the two remaining berths in the Great American Race.<\/p>\n

Media Center Interviews:<\/h3>\n

Pole winner William Byron and crew chief Chad Knaus – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/DIS_Byron_Knaus_021019.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Second place qualifier Alex Bowman and team owner Rick Hendrick – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/DIS_Bowman_Hendrick_021019.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying – 61st Annual Daytona 500<\/b><\/p>\n

Daytona International Speedway<\/b><\/p>\n

Daytona Beach, Florida<\/b><\/p>\n

Sunday, February 10, 2019<\/b><\/p>\n

                1. (24) William Byron, Chevrolet, 194.305 mph.<\/p>\n

                2. (88) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 194.154 mph.<\/p>\n

                3. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 193.807 mph.<\/p>\n

                4. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 193.782 mph.<\/p>\n

                5. (8) Daniel Hemric #, Chevrolet, 192.460 mph.<\/p>\n

               6. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 192.448 mph.<\/p>\n

                7. (19) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 192.353 mph.<\/p>\n

                8. (14) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 192.291 mph.<\/p>\n

                9. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 192.263 mph.<\/p>\n

                10. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 191.416 mph.<\/p>\n

                11. (21) Paul Menard, Ford, 191.107 mph.<\/p>\n

                12. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 190.492 mph.<\/p>\n

                13. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 191.164 mph.<\/p>\n

                14. (20) Erik Jones, Toyota, 191.127 mph.<\/p>\n

                15. (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 190.957 mph.<\/p>\n

                16. (31) Tyler Reddick(i), Chevrolet, 190.836 mph.<\/p>\n

                17. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 190.799 mph.<\/p>\n

                18. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 190.771 mph.<\/p>\n

                19. (10) Aric Almirola, Ford, 190.739 mph.<\/p>\n

                20. (41) Daniel Suarez, Ford, 190.698 mph.<\/p>\n

                21. (1) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 190.589 mph.<\/p>\n

                22. (37) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 190.432 mph.<\/p>\n

                23. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 190.420 mph.<\/p>\n

                24. (6) Ryan Newman, Ford, 190.018 mph.<\/p>\n

                25. (34) Michael McDowell, Ford, 189.978 mph.<\/p>\n

                26. (27) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 189.849 mph.<\/p>\n

                27. (71) Ryan Truex(i), Chevrolet, 189.737 mph.<\/p>\n

                28. (47) Ryan Preece #, Chevrolet, 189.709 mph.<\/p>\n

                29. (40) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 189.482 mph.<\/p>\n

                30. (95) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 189.414 mph.<\/p>\n

                31. (62) Brendan Gaughan(i), Chevrolet, 189.394 mph.<\/p>\n

                32. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 189.215 mph.<\/p>\n

                33. (43) Bubba Wallace, Chevrolet, 189.191 mph.<\/p>\n

                34. (13) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 188.715 mph.<\/p>\n

                35. (36) Matt Tifft #, Ford, 188.667 mph.<\/p>\n

                36. (96) Parker Kligerman(i), Toyota, 188.206 mph.<\/p>\n

                37. (15) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 187.899 mph.<\/p>\n

                38. (00) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 187.402 mph.<\/p>\n

                39. (32) Corey LaJoie, Ford, 185.847 mph.<\/p>\n

                40. (52) Cody Ware #, Chevrolet, 183.737 mph.<\/p>\n

                2 drivers failed to qualify.<\/p>\n

                41. (51)  BJ McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 182.682 mph.<\/p>\n

                42. (66)  Joey Gase(i), Toyota, 180.930 mph.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Paired for the first time with crew chief Chad Knaus, sophomore driver William Byron put his No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 on the pole for the Feb. 17 Daytona 500 on Sunday (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), leading a Hendrick Motorsports […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":23243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[42,287,16,212],"class_list":["post-23242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-daytona-500","tag-daytona-international-speedway","tag-nascar","tag-william-byron"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/360087.jpg?fit=4432%2C3176&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-62S","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23242"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23248,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23242\/revisions\/23248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}