AVONDALE, Ariz. – William Byron’s second-career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series pole also shattered the Phoenix Int’l Raceway track record on Friday night.
Proving that his six wins on the season and solid Chase performance thus far are no fluke, Byron earned the 21 Means 21 Pole Award and the top starting spot on the grid for the Lucas Oil 150, posting a lap of 26.039 seconds (138.254 mph) behind the wheel of his No. 9 Liberty University Toyota Tundra.
Byron led all three rounds and broke the previous track record held by former Kyle Busch Motorsports driver Erik Jones (26.179/137.515) in each session.
The Liberty University freshman will pilot the same chassis on Friday night that he drove to victory from the pole in the Chase opener at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September.
“It feels great for this race team to get another pole,” Byron smiled. “This is our second official one of the year and it’s awesome. It’s a quick turnaround for the race, though, so we do have to get focused for that … but our guys had great execution. Hopefully we can put it in victory lane, but if not, we’ll look to get the best points position we can in order to advance on to Homestead and fight for this championship.”
Byron’s teammate Daniel Suarez made it an all KBM front row after qualifying second (26.133/137.757) in his No. 51 ARRIS Toyota Tundra, also slipping underneath the old track record in the final round.
Rico Abreu qualified third for his best-career series starting position, followed by two-time Round of 6 winner Johnny Sauter and Christopher Bell in the third KBM entry.
John Hunter Nemechek was sixth-quick ahead of Cameron Hayley, defending race winner Timothy Peters, Ben Rhodes, Matt Crafton, Kaz Grala and Cole Custer.
Tyler Reddick, who announced this week he will not return to Brad Keselowski Racing’s Truck program in 2017, was the first driver eliminated from the second round of qualifying and will start 13th.
Other notables eliminated in the first two knockout rounds included rookie Noah Gragson (14th), Matt Tifft (17th), Chaser Ben Kennedy (18th) and Jordan Anderson (25th).
The Lucas Oil 150 takes the green flag at 10 p.m. ET, with live coverage on FOX Sports 1, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
Qualifying Results
