William Byron has attended races at Charlotte Motor Speedway since childhood. On Sunday, all eyes will be on the 21-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina, native when he leads the field to green for the 60th running of the Coca-Cola 600. Byron became the youngest Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series pole winner in the speedway's history during Spectrum Pole Night on Thursday, rocketing to the pole with a 29.440-second, 183.424-mile-per-hour lap.
Byron edged 2012 Coca-Cola 600 pole winner Aric Almirola by .057 seconds. Almirola will start second ahead of defending race winner Kyle Busch and 2017 event winner Austin Dillon. Two-time Coca-Cola 600 winner Kevin Harvick rolls off fifth on Sunday.
Daniel Suarez starts sixth with Joey Logano seventh, Clint Bowyer eighth and Ricky Stenhouse ninth. Rookie Daniel Hemric qualified 10th.
WILLIAM BYRON, No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet (Pole Winner): "Winning the pole is a good first step for this weekend. After all those nights of running the Summer Shootout and Winter Heat around here (as a child), I spent a lot of time wondering what it would be like to run the big track. It's really cool (to win the pole on it). I've run one (Coca-Cola 600) here and it didn't go so great, so the one thought I've had in my head this week was to make it better this year, because honestly it was miserable last year. I've taken that and used it as added motivation for this year. … I don't really like having the 'youngest' term attached to me. I've always been the young guy. … I really just look at myself as a race car driver."
