Byron earns Indianapolis pole

For the second time at a road course race in 2021, William Byron will start from the pole for Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

Byron, who also won the pole at Road America, posted a time of 1 minute, 27.765 seconds, besting Chase Briscoe by 0.426 seconds.

Briscoe will start second. The Rookie of the Year candidate currently has three consecutive Top 10 finishes at road courses. He finished sixth at Circuit of the Americas and Road America and ninth at Watkins Glen.

The rest of the Top 12 is as follows: Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez, Martin Truex Jr, Joey Logano, AJ Allmendinger, Ross Chastain, Cole Custer, Tyler Reddick, Michael McDowell.

McDowell can clinch a playoff spot in Sunday’s race with either a finish of 22nd or better, a win or a repeat winner earning the victory.

A scary moment happened in qualifying when Corey LaJoie had to avoid a safety truck during his warm-up lap. LaJoie avoided the truck and qualified 26th.

Bubble drivers Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick qualified 14th and 25th respectively.

Either driver can lock into the playoffs with a win. Hamlin can lock in with a repeat winner in today’s race.

The Verizon 200 at Indianapolis goes green just after 1 p.m. ET (TV: NBC; Radio: IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).