William Byron Youngest-Ever Coca Cola 600 Pole Winner

William Byron

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Growing up in Charlotte, William Byron used to sit in the stands and watch drivers like Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace and Jeff Gordon duke it out for 600 miles around the famous 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway and imagined himself taking to the track himself someday.

On Thursday night, Byron became the youngest driver to win the pole for NASCAR longest race after claiming the pole position for Sunday's 60^th running of the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Byron wheeled the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro to the top spot with a fast lap of 183.424 mph to collect just his second-career pole. It's his sixth top-three start of the season and his third in the last three races.

Aric Almirola was second fastest, running 183.069 mph in the No. 10 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing. Kyle Busch was third with a lap of 182.933 mph, followed by 2017 Coca Cola 600 winner Austin Dillon and Kevin Harvick.

For Byron, it's been a season's of firsts for the second-year driver – winning the pole for the season—opening Daytona 500, and now, the youngest pole-winner in race history.

"That's awesome. This is a dream come true," said Byron. "Obviously I grew up in Charlotte and came to this race every year. So, it's a dream come true to qualify on the pole with Hendrick Motorsports just across the street and all the hard work and everybody at Chevrolet giving us fast race cars. This is pretty cool. I can't think of a better way to start the weekend."

It was just 25 years after another second-year Cup Series driver took the No. 24 car to Victory Lane for his first series victory – a driver named Jeff Gordon. On Sunday, Byron will get his shot to lead the field to the green flag for 600 miles, hoping to score his own first-career series victory.

William Byron

Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images

"You take it one step at a time,' said Byron on looking for that first win. "There are a lot of things we've got to do right to get to that point. But, I think the speed has been really good and the execution of our race last weekend was nearly flawless from a team's perspective and then from my perspective. So, I think we're getting there, for sure. We're close."

Daniel Suarez, Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Daniel Hemric rounded out the top 10 qualifiers.

RACE LINEUP