William Byron claims Busch Light pole at Phoenix
Despite being the last car out for qualifying, Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron claimed the Busch Light Pole Award for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Shriners Children's 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Phoenix Raceway.
Byron topped the charts at 133.680 mph to score his second career pole in the Cup Series at Phoenix after knocking off Team Penske's Joey Logano (133.195 mph), who will roll off the grid on the front row alongside Byron.
Carson Hocevar (133.121 mph), Josh Berry (132.900 mph) and Erik Jones (132.885 mph) rounded out the top five.
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Chase Elliott (132.846 mph), Michael McDowell (132.846), Justin Haley (132.787 mph), Tyler Reddick (132.778 mph) and Denny Hamlin (132.597 mph) completed the top 10.
Hocevar fastest in practice
Two drivers from Spire Motorsports topped the leaderboard in Saturday's 45-minute practice session as Carson Hocevar set the quickest time at 132.533 mph. His teammate Michael McDowell was second fastest at 132.523 mph in the No. 71 Chevrolet.
Tyler Reddick (132.499 mph), Austin Cindric (132.489 mph) and Chris Buescher (132.329 mph) rounded out the top five.
William Byron (132.120 mph), Denny Hamlin (131.984 mph), Erik Jones (131.878 mph), Christopher Bell (131.854 mph) and John Hunter Nemechek (131.839 mph) completed the top 10.
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All teams collected data on the option tire during the extended practice session. It was first utilized in last year's All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro and the Richmond summer race.
If the option tire performs well this weekend, it will become the only tire compound used in November for the championship race at Phoenix, according to a NASCAR spokesperson.
This story will be updated.
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