Nothing seems to be able to stop William Byron and the No. 24 NASCAR Chevy Camaro ZL1 – he’s already earned two wins this year, and now he’s claimed the pole position at Circuit of the Americas.
Byron and the No. 24 Camaro tackled the 3.41-mile road course in 130.76 seconds at 93.882 mph, beating second-place Tyler Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota TRD Camry by .138 seconds.
“It’s good, it’s been an up and down weekend,” said Byron. “In the Cup car we had a little bit of work to do yesterday just on overall balance and we corrected some areas and some areas for me as a driver. Good to get the pole but really tomorrow is what matters.”
Meanwhile, Jordan Taylor is subbing for an injured Chase Elliott behind the wheel of the No. 9 NASCAR Chevy Camaro this weekend. Taylor managed to secure the fourth-place starting position, having posted a time of 131.754 seconds at 93.174 mph.
“It was honestly a full new experience and yesterday [in practice] I felt like I was out of control 90 percent of the time,” said Taylor of his first stock car experience at COTA. “Today, I felt like I knew what the car was doing. We made good set-up changes to help with that and give me a better sense of where the grip was. … Today felt super smooth and it felt like I was driving my [sports] car, something super familiar for me.”
Formula One World Champion Kimi “Iceman” Räikkönen is also making his second Cup Series start at COTA, and qualified 22nd in the No. 91 Camaro.
The green flag will drop on the Cup Series race at COTA on Sunday, March 26th, 2023, at 3:30 pm E.T.
| Pos | Car Number | Driver | Team | Time | Speed | Car |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 24 | William Byron | Liberty University Chevrolet | 130.76 | 93.882 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 2 | 45 | Tyler Reddick | Monster Energy Toyota | 130.898 | 93.783 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 3 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Discount Tire Ford | 131.352 | 93.459 | Ford Mustang |
| 4 | 9 | Jordan Taylor | UniFirst Chevrolet | 131.754 | 93.174 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 5 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | Freeway Insurance Chevrolet | 131.905 | 93.067 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 6 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Ally Chevrolet | 132.127 | 92.911 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 7 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger | Farmsmart Chevrolet | 132.228 | 92.84 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 8 | 43 | Erik Jones | Allegiant Chevrolet | 132.23 | 92.838 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 9 | 8 | Kyle Busch | Netspend Chevrolet | 132.459 | 92.678 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 10 | 42 | Noah Gragson # | Black Rifle Coffee Company Chevrolet | 133.162 | 92.188 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 11 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | MoneyLion Toyota | 131.498 | 93.355 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 12 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Worldwide Express Chevrolet | 131.562 | 93.31 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 13 | 5 | Kyle Larson | HendrickCars.com Chevrolet | 132.039 | 92.973 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 14 | 20 | Christopher Bell | DeWalt Toyota | 132.112 | 92.921 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 15 | 22 | Joey Logano | Shell Pennzoil Ford | 132.125 | 92.912 | Ford Mustang |
| 16 | 21 | Harrison Burton | Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford | 132.219 | 92.846 | Ford Mustang |
| 17 | 54 | Ty Gibbs # | He Gets us Toyota | 132.323 | 92.773 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 18 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Kroger/Blue Buffalo Chevrolet | 132.359 | 92.748 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 19 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | Mahindra Tractors Ford | 132.401 | 92.718 | Ford Mustang |
| 20 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Love's Travel Stops Ford | 132.498 | 92.65 | Ford Mustang |
| 21 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Interstate Batteries Toyota | 132.5 | 92.649 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 22 | 91 | Kimi Raikkonen | Onx Homes/iLOQ Chevrolet | 132.526 | 92.631 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 23 | 31 | Justin Haley | Celsius Chevrolet | 132.539 | 92.622 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 24 | 15 | Jenson Button | Mobil 1 Ford | 132.559 | 92.608 | Ford Mustang |
| 25 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Bass Pro Shops Toyota | 132.575 | 92.597 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 26 | 41 | Ryan Preece | HaasTooling.com Ford | 132.629 | 92.559 | Ford Mustang |
| 27 | 7 | Corey LaJoie | OpTic Gaming Chevrolet | 132.756 | 92.47 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 28 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Get Bioethanol Chevrolet | 132.781 | 92.453 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 29 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Mobil 1 Ford | 132.869 | 92.392 | Ford Mustang |
| 30 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | Wyndham Rewards Ford | 132.929 | 92.35 | Ford Mustang |
| 31 | 84 | Jimmie Johnson | Club Wyndham Chevrolet | 132.938 | 92.344 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 32 | 17 | Chris Buescher | Fifth Third Bank Ford | 133.218 | 92.15 | Ford Mustang |
| 33 | 78 | Josh Bilicki(i) | Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet | 133.274 | 92.111 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 34 | 77 | Ty Dillon | Ferris Commercial Mowers Chevrolet | 133.567 | 91.909 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 35 | 50 | Conor Daly | BitNile.com Chevrolet | 133.792 | 91.754 | Chev |
| 36 | 38 | Todd Gilliland | Ruedebusch Ford | 134.038 | 91.586 | Ford Mustang |
| 37 | 51 | Cody Ware | PublicSq Ford | 134.858 | 91.029 | Ford Mustang |
| 38 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Menards/Knauf Ford | 140.865 | 87.147 | Ford Mustang |
| 39 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Smithfield Ford | 182.392 | 67.306 | Ford Mustang |
# – Rookie
i – Points ineligible
* – Part-time driver
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Comments
Looking forward to seeing Jordan Taylor’s NASCAR debut.
I’ll double that. I want to see the secret Camaro he’s been doing for Hendrick for the 24 hr. race.
It will be interesting what kind of replacement car will replace the Camaro in 2025, for NASCAR
Since gm is going all electric. Maybe the Volt, Bolt, or Spark. Who knows?