{"id":50254,"date":"2025-03-08T15:54:42","date_gmt":"2025-03-08T21:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=50254"},"modified":"2025-03-10T17:00:45","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T22:00:45","slug":"william-byron-edges-joey-logano-for-the-cup-series-pole-at-phoenix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/08\/william-byron-edges-joey-logano-for-the-cup-series-pole-at-phoenix\/","title":{"rendered":"William Byron edges Joey Logano for the Cup Series pole at Phoenix"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

AVONDALE, Ariz. \u2013 Daytona 500 winner William Byron climbed out of his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on Phoenix Raceway pit road with a huge smile after claiming his first pole position in nearly a year \u2014 the last car to turn a qualifying lap.<\/p>\n

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William Byron, driver of the #24 Z by HP Chevrolet, poses for photos after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway on March 08, 2025 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The 27-year-old North Carolinian conceded he wasn\u2019t expecting his chart-topping lap of 133.680 mph but is ready to seize the strong start for Sunday\u2019s Shriners Children\u2019s 500 (3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not hit my marks, I was sideways and carried a ton of entry speed, missed the middle of the corner, and coming off the dogleg I was so loose,\u2019\u2019 Byron said of his fast lap on the one-mile Phoenix oval, the 14th pole of his career. \u201cI was just going to try to commit to the exits and see how much I could get out, even though I missed the center [of the turn].<\/p>\n

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William Byron, driver of the #24 Z by HP Chevrolet, drives during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway on March 08, 2025 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cJust a fast car,\u2019\u2019 said Byron, who leads the NASCAR Cup Series championship and has two top-two finishes in the season\u2019s first three races. \u201cThanks to my whole team. They\u2019ve been bringing fast cars, and we\u2019ve been doing a really good job of executing. So definitely want to go out there and have a great day tomorrow.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Team Penske\u2019s Joey Logano will start alongside Byron, marking his third front-row start in four races this year. The three-time and reigning series champion turned a lap of 133.195 mph in his No. 22 Ford Mustang in Saturday\u2019s single-round NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session.<\/p>\n

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Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford, drives during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway on March 08, 2025 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like William Byron anymore,\u2019\u2019 Logano said with a laugh. \u201cMan, that stinks. I just got through telling [crew chief] Paul [Wolfe] that it would really suck if the last car beat us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was going to be Penske\u2019s 700th pole across all motorsports, so we\u2019ll have to go try and do that next week. But overall, proud of the effort.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Spire Motorsports\u2019 Carson Hocevar will start his No. 77 Chevrolet third, leading an impressive weekend for the Spire team. For the first time ever, all three of its cars will start among the top eight on the grid. Michael McDowell (No. 71) and Justin Haley (No. 7) will start seventh and eighth, respectively.<\/p>\n

Wood Brothers Racing\u2019s Josh Berry was fourth quickest in the No. 21 Ford, followed by Legacy Motor Club\u2019s Erik Jones in the No. 43 Toyota.<\/p>\n

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Katherine Legge, driver of the #78 Droplight Chevrolet, waits on the grid during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway on March 08, 2025 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Defending Phoenix spring race winner Christopher Bell, who brings a two-race winning streak into Phoenix, was 11th quickest Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Katherine Legge, making her NASCAR Cup Series debut this weekend, qualified last among the 37 cars. However, she improved her practice speed in the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet by more than 2 mph in qualifying \u2014 a strong sign of progress for the sports car and open-wheel driver.<\/p>\n

Logano, who won the last NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix in November, is the last driver to win a race from the pole at the desert one-miler, claiming that win in fall 2022. Hendrick Motorsports drivers Kyle Larson (2021) and Chase Elliott (2020) are the only other active drivers with a Phoenix victory from the pole.<\/p>\n

Hocevar was not only quick in qualifying but also fastest in Saturday afternoon\u2019s practice using Goodyear\u2019s \u201coption\u201d tires. His Spire Motorsports Chevrolet teammate McDowell was second-fastest, with 23XI Racing\u2019s Tyler Reddick (Toyota), Team Penske\u2019s Austin Cindric (Ford), and Roush Fenway Keselowski\u2019s Chris Buescher (Ford) rounding out the top five.<\/p>\n

Teams tested the option tire in the 45-minute practice session to evaluate its impact in race trim. Race conditions are expected to differ, with temperatures forecasted to be at least 10 degrees warmer. Every team will have two sets of the option tire and six of the Goodyear primary sets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know, but it\u2019s definitely a much faster tire and pretty strong as well,\u2019\u2019 Larson said of running practice laps on the option tire. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be interesting.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

NOTES:<\/b><\/p>\n

Legge makes history:<\/b> Legge will become only the eighth woman to start a NASCAR Cup Series race in the sport\u2019s modern era (post-1972) and the first since Danica Patrick competed in the 2018 Daytona 500. The 44-year-old is driving the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet, owned by B.J. McLeod and his wife, Jessica. Legge has four IMSA class wins and has started four Indianapolis 500s. She has made five career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts, with a best finish of 14th at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, in 2018.<\/p>\n

Cindric penalized:<\/b> NASCAR issued a major penalty to Team Penske\u2019s Austin Cindric for intentional contact with Kaulig Racing\u2019s Ty Dillon early in last week\u2019s race at Circuit of the Americas. The penalty includes a loss of 50 driver points and a $50,000 fine, dropping Cindric from 11th to 35th in the standings entering Sunday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

Briscoe\u2019s penalty overturned:<\/b> NASCAR\u2019s Appeals Panel overturned a 100-point penalty issued to Chase Briscoe, reinstating his points and placing him 14th in the standings, tied with Carson Hocevar.<\/p>\n

Bell eyes three-peat:<\/b> Defending Phoenix spring race winner Christopher Bell is attempting to become the first driver to win three consecutive races in the NextGen car era. Eleven times in modern NASCAR history, a driver winning three straight has gone on to win the championship the same year.<\/p>\n

Tire strategy at play:<\/b> NASCAR is allowing teams to choose between Goodyear\u2019s primary \u201cyellow\u201d tire, designed for longevity, and the grippier but faster-wearing \u201cred\u201d option tire. Teams will receive six sets of primary tires and two sets of option tires.<\/p>\n

Logano returns to championship site:<\/b> Logano, a four-time Phoenix Raceway winner, acknowledged the special memories of his title-winning performance last fall but said he\u2019s focused on moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cLots of good memories here. It is cool being back for sure,\u2019\u2019 Logano said. \u201cEven going out there earlier and seeing the [track] wall with the sticker on it, because we won this thing last time. It’s a lot of special moments, but I’ve been saying it\u2019s in the past, right? You gotta keep moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Logano has led the most laps this season (126) but has yet to record a top-10 finish through three races. He sits 12th in the standings, primarily due to stage points earned.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. \u2013 Daytona 500 winner William Byron climbed out of his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on Phoenix Raceway pit road with a huge smile after claiming his first pole position in nearly a year \u2014 the last car to turn a qualifying lap. The 27-year-old North Carolinian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":50248,"comment_status":"closed","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":[16,395,212],"class_list":["post-50254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-phoenix-raceway","tag-william-byron"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/GettyImages-2204009091-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1706&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-d4y","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50254","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=50254"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50259,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50254\/revisions\/50259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}