April 5, 2025 | By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

William Byron on pole at Darlington

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron won pole position for Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — yet another supreme performance for his NASCAR Cup Series championship-leading No. 24 team.

Byron’s lap of 170.904 mph around the iconic 1.366-mile oval set a fast lap early in Busch Light Pole Qualifying Saturday afternoon and set up a front row that will also include Ryan Preece in the No. 60 Roush Fenway Keselowski Ford, Preece’s best start since winning his only career pole position at Martinsville Speedway in spring 2023.

It’s the 15th pole position of the 27-year-old Byron’s eight-year career, his second of the season (Phoenix in March) and second at the notoriously tough Darlington track.

“I felt good about it today, felt like we had a good plan going into practice and that we are always strong here,” said this year’s Daytona 500 winner Byron, who won at Darlington in 2023 and said it may well be his “best track.”

“Tried to find a decent balance there, worked on it and got better and finished practice pretty strong, so I felt like I had some confidence going into practice. Was just nervous going early. Having an earlier draw was not ideal, but it seemed like the track temp was going up so it wasn’t the worst thing. … Proud of our team, we had a really good week of prep.”

Although Chevy and Ford split the front row, Toyotas filled out the rest of the top five on the grid. Last week’s Martinsville winner Denny Hamlin — Darlington’s winningest active driver (four wins) — was third-fastest in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. His teammate, Daytona 500 polesitter Chase Briscoe, was fourth quickest in the No. 19 JGR Toyota, followed by 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, who will roll off fifth in the No. 23 Toyota that Hamlin co-owns.

Austin Cindric will start sixth in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford, followed by 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick (Toyota), Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch (Chevrolet), Penske’s Ryan Blaney (Ford) and Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell (Chevrolet).

Although the Hendrick team is ranked first, second (Kyle Larson), third (Chase Elliott) and fifth (Alex Bowman) in the championship points, his teammates did not fare as well in Saturday’s time trials. Elliott will start 19th. Larson, who won at Darlington in 2023, will start 19th, and Bowman will roll off 33rd.

“It may be tricky strategy-wise and you can get stuck back there, so [qualifying] matters maybe just a tick more than other places,” Byron said, noting his teammates. “These cars are really finicky, so hitting the balance and just hitting the lap the way you want it to be can be really difficult. So I’m not surprised because there’s a lot of parity in the Next Gen era and especially in qualifying so you can be just that little bit off.

“I feel like our team has really good notes from qualifying, though, and that will really help.”

Defending race winner Brad Keselowski, co-owner and driver of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s No. 6 Ford will start 20th.


Hocevar fastest in practice

Spire Motorsports driver Carson Hocevar topped the leaderboard in practice at 168.054 mph, besting Josh Berry (167.180 mph) and Erik Jones (167.123 mph).

Austin Cindric (166.777 mph) and Justin Haley (166.552 mph) rounded out the top five.

Byron (166.535 mph), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (166.231 mph), Ty Gibbs (166.214 mph), Austin Dillon (165.961 mph) and defending winner Brad Keselowski (165.698 mph) completed the top 10.

The only incident of the session occurred in Group 1 when Legacy Motor Club’s John Hunter Nemechek spun in Turn 2.


NASCAR Cup Series
Starting Line Up by Row
Darlington Raceway
Goodyear 400

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 4/5/2025 @ 02:39 PM Eastern

Driver Date Time Speed

Track Race Record: Matt Kenseth  05/11/13 03:32:45 141.383

Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed
Row 1: 1 24 William Byron Axalta Chevrolet 28.774 170.904
2 60 Ryan Preece Kroger/Country Crock Ford 28.858 170.407

Row 2: 3 11 Denny Hamlin Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota 28.867 170.354
4 19 Chase Briscoe Bass Pro Shops Toyota 28.879 170.283

Row 3: 5 23 Bubba Wallace Columbia Sportswear Company Toyota 28.895 170.189
6 2 Austin Cindric Freightliner Ford 28.948 169.877

Row 4: 7 45 Tyler Reddick McDonald's Toyota 28.955 169.836
8 8 Kyle Busch Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet 28.957 169.824

Row 5: 9 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Dutch Boy Ford 28.958 169.818
10 71 Michael McDowell Delaware Life Chevrolet 28.972 169.736

Row 6: 11 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 28.975 169.719
12 34 Todd Gilliland Ruedebusch Ford 28.987 169.648

Row 7: 13 77 Carson Hocevar Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet 28.994 169.608
14 17 Chris Buescher Fifth Third Bank Ford 28.996 169.596

Row 8: 15 9 Chase Elliott UniFirst Chevrolet 29.001 169.567
16 38 Zane Smith Long John Silver's Ford 29.008 169.526

Row 9: 17 20 Christopher Bell DEWALT Outdoors Toyota 29.015 169.485
18 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 29.039 169.345

Row 10: 19 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 29.078 169.118
20 6 Brad Keselowski Castrol Seven Critical Areas Ford 29.172 168.573

Row 11: 21 7 Justin Haley Gainbridge Chevrolet 29.185 168.498
22 16 AJ Allmendinger Action Industries Chevrolet 29.230 168.238

Row 12: 23 3 Austin Dillon Breztri Chevrolet 29.255 168.094
24 21 Josh Berry Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford 29.265 168.037

Row 13: 25 1 Ross Chastain Busch Light Fishing Chevrolet 29.285 167.922
26 4 Noah Gragson Beef-a-Roo Ford 29.292 167.882

Row 14: 27 42 John Hunter Nemechek Dollar Tree Toyota 29.315 167.750
28 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. SUNNYD Chevrolet 29.318 167.733

Row 15: 29 10 Ty Dillon Beaver Street Fisheries Chevrolet 29.412 167.197
30 99 Daniel Suarez Quaker State Chevrolet 29.457 166.942

Row 16: 31 41 Cole Custer Haas Automation Ford 29.483 166.794
32 35 Riley Herbst # Monster Energy Toyota 29.525 166.557

Row 17: 33 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 29.572 166.292
34 43 Erik Jones AdventHealth Toyota 29.617 166.040

Row 18: 35 51 Cody Ware Jacob Construction Ford 29.757 165.259
36 88 Shane Van Gisbergen # WeatherTech Chevrolet 29.928 164.314

Row 19: 37 33 Austin Hill(i) United Rentals Chevrolet 30.070 163.538
38 44 JJ Yeley Wawa Chevrolet 30.314 162.222

Did Not Qualify: None.

Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs
Chevrolet 17 0 Ford 12 0
Toyota 9 0

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series