Qualifying report
NASCAR Cup Road America
Led by Byron, Hendrick sweeps front row at Road America
Despite some chaotic moments in qualifying, Hendrick Motorsports swept the front row for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Road America.
Jim Utter
Edited: Jul 4, 2021, 5:33 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
William Byron ended up winning the pole with an average lap speed of 110.359 mph, just edging his Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson (110.205 mph). A.J. Allmendinger ended up third (109.844 mph).
The pole is the first for Byron this season and the sixth of his career.
“We struggled a little bit off the truck but we had some good changes in mind,” said Byron, who was 11th fastest in practice on Saturday. “The car was really fast in qualifying.
“It was fast in race trim the last run and I feel like we just kind of went back to the basics on the road courses. We’ve struggled this year on road courses and we kind of got back to a basic set-up and put it all together today.
“Thanks to Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) and all the guys for working really hard. Great to see Hendrick 1-2 on the front row.”
Rounding out the top-five in the final 10-minunte round were Tyler Reddick, who spun after completing his hot lap, and reigning Xfinity Series champion Austin Cindric.
Completing the top-12 starters are Denny Hamlin, Matt DiBenedetto, Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez and Chris Buescher.
Round 1
Cindric, running a partial Cup schedule this season, topped the first 25-minute qualifying session with an average lap speed of 111.132 mph.
Allmendinger ended up second (110.573 mph) and William Byron (110.542 mph) was third. Larson and Chastain rounded out the top-five.
Also advancing to the final round were Hamlin, Reddick, Suarez, Truex, DiBenedetto, Bowman and Buescher.
Early in the first round, Brad Keselowski went off the track and through the dirt, which appeared to do some damage to the nose of his No. 2 Ford.
About 14 minutes into the first round, the No. 78 of Kyle Tilley came to a stop near Turn 3, which brought out a red flag. Tilley had to be towed back to pit road.
With just over two minutes remaining, Bubba Wallace suddenly slowed during his qualifying lap and ended up stopping on the track near Turn 11, which brought out a red flag. Wallace also required a push back to pit road.
The late-race red flag prevented any more teams to from starting a qualifying lap before time expired so Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch, Chase Briscoe, Austin Dillon and Ty Dillon were never able to complete a lap at speed.
Kyle Busch, who moved to a backup car after a wreck in Saturday’s practice, also did not take a lap and will begin Sunday’s race without a single on-track lap with his No. 18 Toyota.
Read Also:
Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 24 
William Byron Chevrolet 1 2'12.049 110.359 2 5 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 1 2'12.233 0.184 0.184 110.205 3 16 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 1 2'12.668 0.619 0.435 109.844 4 8 Tyler Reddick Chevrolet 1 2'12.711 0.662 0.043 109.809 5 33 Austin Cindric Ford 1 2'12.760 0.711 0.049 109.768 6 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 1 2'12.849 0.800 0.089 109.694 7 21 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 1 2'12.887 0.838 0.038 109.663 8 42 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 1 2'13.389 1.340 0.502 109.250 9 19 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 1 2'13.602 1.553 0.213 109.076 10 48 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 1 2'13.701 1.652 0.099 108.995 11 99 
Daniel Suarez Chevrolet 1 2'13.736 1.687 0.035 108.967 12 17 Chris Buescher Ford 1 2'14.151 2.102 0.415 108.630
13 20 Christopher Bell Toyota 1 2'12.964 1.834 0.135 109.600 14 22 Joey Logano Ford 1 2'12.967 1.837 0.003 109.597 15 41 Cole Custer Ford 3 2'12.986 1.856 0.019 109.581 16 1 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 2 2'13.363 2.233 0.377 109.272 17 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 1 2'13.561 2.431 0.198 109.110 18 34 Michael McDowell Ford 1 2'13.580 2.450 0.019 109.094 19 10 Aric Almirola Ford 2 2'13.607 2.477 0.027 109.072 20 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 1 2'13.786 2.656 0.179 108.926 21 43 Erik Jones Chevrolet 1 2'13.840 2.710 0.054 108.882 22 77 Justin Haley Chevrolet 1 2'14.026 2.896 0.186 108.731 23 7 Corey Lajoie Chevrolet 1 2'14.171 3.041 0.145 108.614 24 38 Anthony Alfredo Ford 1 2'14.773 3.643 0.602 108.128 25 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 1 2'14.800 3.670 0.027 108.107 26 15 
James Davison Chevrolet 1 2'14.870 3.740 0.070 108.051 27 52 Josh Bilicki Ford 1 2'15.098 3.968 0.228 107.868 28 6 Ryan Newman Ford 3 2'15.693 4.563 0.595 107.395 29 51 Cody Ware Chevrolet 1 2'16.182 5.052 0.489 107.010 30 78 
Kyle Tilley Ford 2 2'16.801 5.671 0.619 106.526 31 53 Ryan Eversley Chevrolet 1 2'16.816 5.686 0.015 106.514 32 37 Ryan Preece Chevrolet 1 2'18.531 7.401 1.715 105.195 33 00 Quin Houff Chevrolet 1 2'20.213 9.083 1.682 103.933 34 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 2 9'55.698 7'44.568 7'35.485 24.463 35 14 Chase Briscoe Ford 2 10'43.099 8'31.969 47.401 22.660 36 23 Bubba Wallace Toyota 1 15'33.694 13'22.564 4'50.595 15.608 37 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 1 17'01.040 14'49.910 1'27.346 14.273 38 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Chevrolet 1 18'38.206 16'27.076 1'37.166 13.032 39 96 Ty Dillon Toyota 1 19'51.940 17'40.810 1'13.734 12.226 40 18 Kyle Busch Toyota
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Kurt Busch tops Cup practice at Road America, Kyle Busch wrecks
Next article Ernie Francis Jr. wins first SRX race at Lucas Oil Raceway
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jim Utter
Erik Jones agrees to multi-year contract extension with Legacy Motor Club
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup Aug 13, 2024
Erik Jones agrees to multi-year contract extension with Legacy Motor Club
Goodyear's option tires at Richmond "were like Mario Kart with a star"
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Aug 12, 2024
Goodyear's option tires at Richmond "were like Mario Kart with a star"
NASCAR: Austin Dillon move was "really close to crossing the line"
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Aug 12, 2024
NASCAR: Austin Dillon move was "really close to crossing the line"
Latest news
TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
11 min
TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale
Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck
Homestead
59 min
Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role
“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 5 h
“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe