Joey Logano missed a crucial pole position win to William Byron for the NASCAR Shriners Children’s 500 qualifying at Phoenix Raceway. Logano’s pole victory would have marked Team Penske’s 700th pole across all motorsports categories.
Byron, however, ensured that he took away the pole from Logano by being the last car on track to do a hot lap. This could be considered an important achievement for Byron, who also won the Daytona 500 this year, positioning himself as a strong Cup Series championship contender. Speaking on the run that got him the 14th pole of his career, the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver said:
“I did not hit my marks, I was sideways and carried a ton of entry speed, missed the middle of the corner, and coming off the dogleg I was so loose.
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“I was just going to try to commit to the exits and see how much I could get out, even though I missed the center (of the turn).
“Just a fast car.
“Thanks to my whole team. They’ve been bringing fast cars, and we’ve been doing a really good job of executing. So definitely want to go out there and have a great day tomorrow.”
Leading the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series championship currently, Byron and Hendrick Motorsports are heavily focused on Phoenix as it could add a big advantage in the championship.
Logano, who also looks strong this season, will start alongside Byron on the front row in his No. 22 Ford Mustang. Despite this being his third front-row start in four races this year, he seemed disappointed for not securing the 700th pole for his team, but gave a hilarious reaction to Byron’s pole win. He added:
“I don’t like William Byron anymore.
“Man, that stinks. I just got through telling (crew chief) Paul (Wolfe) that it would really suck if the last car beat us.
“That was going to be Penske’s 700th pole across all motorsports, so we’ll have to go try and do that next week. But overall, proud of the effort.”
2025 NASCAR Cup Series – Shriners Children’s 500 Qualifying Results
- William Byron
- Joey Logano
- Carson Hocevar
- Josh Berry
- Erik Jones
- Chase Elliott
- Michael McDowell
- Justin Haley
- Tyler Reddick
- Denny Hamlin
- Christopher Bell
- Ryan Blaney
- Chris Buescher
- Austin Cindric
- Kyle Busch
- AJ Allmendinger
- Kyle Larson
- Riley Herbst
- Bubba Wallace
- Brad Keselowski
- Austin Dillon
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Cole Custer
- Ross Chastain
- Ty Dillon
- Zane Smith
- Todd Gilliland
- Ryan Preece
- Shane van Gisbergen
- Chase Briscoe
- Daniel Suarez
- Alex Bowman
- Noah Gragson
- Ty Gibbs
- Cody Ware
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Katherine Legge