William Byron 1 pole away from tying NASCAR record
If William Byron wins the pole Sunday (Feb. 9) for the Daytona 500 for a second consecutive season, he will tie Mike Skinner for the most pole awards without scoring a points-awarding victory in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series.
Currently, Byron is tied with Todd Bodine and Ted Musgrave for the second-most poles in Cup Series history (five poles apiece) without a win.
Skinner won six poles in his 22-year Cup Series career. Despite leading 1,029 laps — the most laps led without recording a Cup Series win in series history — the 62-year-old never won a race in 286 starts.
2020 marks Byron’s third full-time season in the Cup Series, and the Daytona 500 will be Byron’s 73rd start in the series.
Byron won his first career Cup Series pole last season for the 2019 Daytona 500. He also won poles for the Coca-Cola 600, spring Pocono race, Darlington Labor Day-weekend race and the Charlotte Road Course race in September.
Reed Sorenson, Daniel Suarez and J.J. Yeley are other active Cup Series drivers who have won at least one pole but have yet to win in NASCAR’s elite series.
Hendrick Motorsports has had one of their drivers win the pole for NASCAR’s Super Bowl in the last five seasons (Jeff Gordon ‘15, Chase Elliott ‘16 and ‘17, Alex Bowman ‘18 and William Byron ‘19).
Seventy-five drivers, according to data from Racing-Reference.info, have won at least one pole but have never won in the Cup Series’ 71-year history.
Pole day qualifying for the Daytona 500 will be televised live on Sunday, Feb. 9 at 12:30 p.m. ET. on FOX.
SOURCES
Racing-Reference.info
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Dominic Aragon View All
Dominic Aragon is currently the editor-in-chief for The Racing Experts.
From Grants, New Mexico, USA, Aragon started watching NASCAR in 2004 and has been covering the sport since 2009. Aragon is a 2012 graduate of Grants High School and a May 2016 graduate of the University of New Mexico with a B.A. in Mass Communications & Journalism. Aragon has worked in local and national media, as a musician, and an educator. He is co-author of the 2024 book "All of It: Daytona 500 Champion Tells the Rest of the Story" with racer Geoff Bodine.
Aragon, his wife Feliz, and son Christopher currently reside in Grants, New Mexico, USA.
You can reach Dominic at daragon@theracingexperts.net.