NASCAR News: William Byron wins Cup pole at Darlington

Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron scored his second pole of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season for Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway.

Related Article:  NASCAR News: Byron leads Hendrick 1-2-3 at Martinsville

Byron earned the 15th pole of his Cup Series career after putting the No. 24 Chevrolet at the top of the board with a speed of 170.904 mph.

RFK Racing’s Ryan Preece (170.407 mph) and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin (170.354 mph) qualified second and third, respectively.

Chase Briscoe (170.283 mph) and Bubba Wallace (170.189 mph) rounded out the top five.

Austin Cindric (169.877 mph), Tyler Reddick (169.836 mph), Kyle Busch (169.824 mph), Ryan Blaney (169.818 mph) and Michael McDowell (169.736 mph) completed the top 10.

William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet – Pole Win Press Conference Quotes

William, this is your second poll at the track. Too tough to tame. You’ve won at this event before. What did you like out of your car in those laps and how do you feel about your chance to support them all?

BYRON: “Yeah, I felt good about it today. You know, I felt like we had a good plan going into practice. I feel like we’re always strong here. It’s a really good track for our team and myself. We were just trying to find a decent balance there to start. We were a little bit tighter than we wanted to be, so we pitted and worked on it; got it a lot better and finished practice pretty strong, I felt like. So I had some confidence going into qualifying that we’d have a decent lap, at least. I was just was nervous about going early. I just felt like having a little bit of an earlier draw was not ideal, but it seemed like the track temp was starting to go up as well, so it probably wasn’t the worst thing. Just really hit (turns) one and two well. I felt like I got through the entry to one and up the hill well, and then entry to three was also good. I just felt like I gave up maybe half to three quarters of a tenth off of four.

Luckily it was enough. Just proud of our team. We had a really good week of prep. A couple tough weeks for results, but we’re still running strong.”

You won this event back in 2023. How comfortable do you feel at this racetrack? Just again, sitting on the pole now here. Is this a comfortable track for you to race on, just your confidence going forward?

BYRON: “Yeah, I think this is maybe my best track. I feel like this is just a place I love coming to. I think that ever since I’ve been here as a driver, I just enjoy coming down here. It’s a tough challenge. It really tests you mentally and physically. Off the track, I had a lot of nostalgia coming here as a kid. It was just the place that I loved seeing on the way to Myrtle Beach as a kid and just dreamed about racing here. I feel like for every driver, that kind of makes it important to you. It doesn’t mean you’re always going to be good here, but it’s always been an important track. I think that history and then parlaying that into having good runs here, it has had a special place in my heart.”

I wanted to ask you how important getting a pole and starting up front really is here at Darlington. Is this a place where that matters a lot?

BYRON: “It probably matters maybe a fraction more than some other places. Still, it’s a long race, but you don’t want to qualify here in the 20s. It’s a tough place to pass. It can be tricky strategy-wise and you can get stuck back there. This is a place we always try to qualify in the top five or six because having that clean air is a big deal. So yeah, maybe a fraction more than other places, but you can still win from anywhere. We’ve never had the benefit of really having pit stall one here, which is super nice to have. I’m excited for that and I feel like that will help our pit crew. It’s just a nice advantage.”

The rest of your team did not fare quite as well as you today. Are you surprised by that?

BYRON: “These cars are really finicky, so hitting the lap the way you want it to be can be difficult. I’m not surprised because there’s a lot of parity in the Next Gen era, especially in qualifying. You can be that little bit off. I feel like our team made good notes from last year here qualifying. I think that really helped us.”

You talked about a little bit of a connection to it coming down here. Seeing it from the perspective of not being a driver or not having a family and racing, what does this place mean to you?

BYRON: “This place is just very special. I feel like it’s always had a lot of meaning. I guess my first race here, I ran Ricky Hendrick’s throwback scheme in Xfinity. That was just really special. We had a good day. I think it’s just kind of continued. I’ve had a lot of great throwback schemes, honestly. That’s always made it fun here in the spring or the fall. I think it’s just that kind of nostalgia that I enjoy.”

When and where is the most difficult part of this racetrack? We spent years talking about how easy it is to get caught up in it. You like this track. What moment, where, what part of the track and what kind of movements make it scattered for you here?

BYRON: “It’s just a tricky place. It’s changing every year, just that little bit. I feel like when they put the patch down in turn two, that was a big difference maker. Definitely had something new to adjust for. Every time, this is one of those places where when they roll out for practice in Xfinity and I turn on the TV or I look at the racetrack when I come in the tunnel, I’m always looking for little things that are different because it seems to just age like that. It’s a unique place. It seems like there’s some differences this year. I’m intrigued to watch Xfinity and figure out what those differences are.”

Tell the fans what it’s like to lead the field to green here at this particular racetrack. You certainly know you may get a strike, but you don’t want to get the first one…

BYRON: “Yeah, clean air is nice here, for sure. It doesn’t usually last very long because you catch the back of the field. Somebody is always in traffic here. But getting that clean air is huge here and hopefully we can just keep that control of the race.”

We saw a few weeks ago at Homestead, Kyle Larson was on the wall and sheared the right side of his car off pretty bad. Now we’re at another track where you’re on the wall. Do you see that trend kind of continue where we’re getting more and more bouncing off the wall and really tearing the right sides off? Was that kind of by play from Larson and something that maybe you and him or Hendrick has discussed getting on the wall even more?

BYRON: “No.. I mean, definitely not discussed it. I feel like this place is way different running the wall than Homestead, although it looks the same, you know, from visually, like you’re touching it sometimes here. It’s very different, like the way the wall is shaped here and just the effect or lack of here.

So it’s a different technique. I mean, you know, Kyle’s been able to run it well both places, but I don’t think there are anything like really.”

It’s been three and a half years since they repaved the exit of turn two. Is there still a grip strip there, or has it lost its usefulness at this point?

BYRON: “Yeah, it’s still more grip, but, yeah, it’s not like you can just run wide open through there anymore. And there’s some bump content on the exit, which for these cars, is pretty bad.. you know, the way the stops hit in the back. So yeah, there’s still more grip there than the rest of the track, but it’s not as much and I think you’ll just see it. It’s always going to have an advantage, though, because the age of it’s going to just be offset to, you know, the rest of the track.

So, yeah, it’s interesting, but I think it’s continuing to get some character. Hopefully those bumps don’t get any worse.”

Were you happy that it’s unusually hot here for April because it seems like it’s just like it is in May and September?

BYRON: “I wouldn’t say happy, but I’m okay with it. It’s definitely going to be warm. You know, I think tomorrow is going to be a test mentally, physically. You know, it’s a tough place, and I feel like this weather here just exaggerates. It really just exaggerates the track grip, and I think that we’ve been fortunate a couple times here to run in the spring when it’s like cloudy out, and that really adds a lot of grip to the racetrack. So, yeah, I think it’s just going to be good notes for the fall because it’s going to be a lot more similar weather to what the fall will be like.”

And so on that how much do you view wanting to win, or do you try anything to learn for the fall?

BYRON: “Yeah, I don’t think — like right now, there’s nothing set in stone to try, but I think if you have a good notebook from this race, it’ll carry over really well for the Southern 500. So that’s what I’ve seen with Darlington. It doesn’t change that much from spring to fall in terms of set-up stuff. So it’s a really important race tomorrow just to get a good notebook for the fall.”

2025 Darlington Goodyear 400 Qualifying Results