NASCAR Cup Series regular William Byron will start today’s Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen International (3 p.m. ET on USA Network, NBC Sports App, NBCSports.com) from the pole position.
Byron, driving the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, won the pole in Saturday morning’s qualifying session with an Xfinity Series track record lap of 70.548 seconds around the 7-turn, 2.45-mile road course.
MORE: NASCAR Xfinity Series at Watkins Glen - Starting Lineup
Before then, he had also turned the fastest lap in his group during the first round of qualifying.
“It was a fun lap for sure (in the final round),” Byron told NBC Sports. “We had a fun practice - I knew kind of, with the way it felt in practice, I was like, ‘Man, it feels good. I think this thing’s got a lot of potential.’”
Ty Gibbs, winner of the most recent Xfinity race on Aug. 6 at Michigan, will start alongside Byron on the outside of the front row after qualifying second (70.840 seconds).
Reigning Cup Series champion Kyle Larson posted the third-fastest time in qualifying (71.260 seconds) in the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. A.J. Allmendinger was fourth-fastest (71.316 seconds).
Another Cup regular, Cole Custer (71.460 seconds), and Riley Herbst (71.540 seconds) were fifth and sixth-fastest, respectively.
Three drivers failed to qualify: Spencer Pumpelly, Austin Wayne Self and Stanton Barrett.
