{"id":27720,"date":"2021-02-11T09:45:06","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T14:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=27720"},"modified":"2021-02-11T09:45:07","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T14:45:07","slug":"alex-bowman-and-william-byron-qualify-on-the-front-row-of-the-2021-daytona-500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2021\/02\/alex-bowman-and-william-byron-qualify-on-the-front-row-of-the-2021-daytona-500\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Bowman and William Byron Qualify on the Front Row of the 2021 DAYTONA 500"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 10, 2021) – <\/strong>Alex Bowman swapped car numbers for the 2021 season \u2013 from 88 to 48 – but has certainly retained his Daytona magic, earning the pole position for Sunday\u2019s DAYTONA  500 (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), giving the Hendrick Motorsports driver a record fourth consecutive front row start in the NASCAR Cup Series season-opener.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bowman, 27, went out late in the qualifying order (38th of 44 drivers) Wednesday night \u2013 the first night-time pole qualifying session in race history – but his Chevrolet handily set the pace with a lap of 191.261 mph (47.056 secs.), taking the top-spot from Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron by more than a quarter-second during DAYTONA 500 Qualifying Presented By Kroger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was fast,” Byron said, smiling about Bowman\u2019s pole-winning lap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Hendrick teammates also started alongside one another in 2019, when Byron edged Bowman for the pole position. Bowman earned his first Daytona 500 pole in 2018 and started second last year. Hendrick Motorsports now has 14 Daytona 500 pole positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t really have a whole lot to do with me, right,” Bowman said on pit road after qualifying. \u201cIt\u2019s a testament to these guys and everybody back in the shop at Hendrick Motorsports. They work so hard on these superspeedway cars. They are beautiful when they get to the race track. Our Ally Camaro has been really fast since we unloaded and they focused a lot on trying to get the pole for the Daytona 500.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt means a lot to us and we were able to achieve that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, he added, \u201cIt\u2019s more about the people that make it happen. I floored it, but I\u2019m pretty sure everyone else did too. I\u2019m just appreciative my race car is fast.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stewart-Haas Racing\u2019s Aric Almirola was third fastest in the No. 10 Ford followed on the speed chart by Bubba Wallace, who earned rave reviews in his debut driving the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota, which is co-owned by three-time and defending Daytona 500 winning driver Denny Hamlin and NBA Hall of Famer, Michael Jordan. Wallace\u2019s lap was good enough for the top spot only to be taken by Byron three cars later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wallace was fastest in an hour-long practice Wednesday afternoon \u2013 his first official laps with the new organization and he was clearly feeling optimistic about the week. He finished runner-up in his very first Daytona 500 in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything\u2019s shaping up to be a great ending for us, we just have to get through it,” Wallace said. “It\u2019s kind of the same feeling I had in 2018, my first 500. The speed was there, we qualified decent and had a really good Duel and finished second in the 500.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the way things are going, we just have to keep it going, keep the positive momentum going. Everything\u2019s kind of going well in the car. I\u2019m confident. Still getting things worked out but all in all it comes pretty natural when you have a great team behind you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wallace said he got a \u201cvery positive\u201d text from Jordan after qualifying and said the basketball superstar arrives in Daytona on Thursday in time for the Bluegreen Vacation Duels (7 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) that will ultimately set the starting lineup for Sunday\u2019s DAYTONA 500.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamlin, the three-time defending DAYTONA 500 winner, who is also going for a record third consecutive triumph, was 12th fastest in qualifying. The two joked about Wallace being faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m aware,” Hamlin said with a smile, adding, \u201cIt\u2019s actually a pretty solid qualifying effort certainly for our FedEx team, just barely out of the top 10 there so that\u2019s a good starting spot for us and we\u2019re excited about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cObviously that was a great run by the 23-team. They just barely missed it there by a tenth or so to get that locked in spot (on the front row). But now they get to go out there and race and get the experience they need to get a good finish on Sunday.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speed wise, last year\u2019s polesitter Ricky Stenhouse Jr. proved fast again \u2013 fifth quickest in the JTG Daugherty Chevrolet. Kevin Harvick (No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford), Christopher Bell (No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota), Ryan Preece (No. 37 JTG Daugherty Chevrolet), 2018 DAYTONA 500 winner Austin Dillon (No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet) and Daniel Suarez (No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet) rounded out the top 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preece and 13th-place qualifier David Ragan were quickest among Open car teams needing to qualify based upon time. The rest of the Open car team drivers – Austin Cindric, Kaz Grala, Timmy Hill, Noah Gragson, Ty Dillon and Garrett Smithley – will have to battle it out in the Duels with the highest finisher among them in each Duel earning a spot in the DAYTONA 500.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tickets for Speedweeks Presented By AdventHealth events, excluding the DAYTONA 500, are still available as children 12 and under are FREE in the 100 level seating and $10 in all other reserved seating. Tickets start at $49 for adults for Thursday\u2019s Bluegreen Vacations Duel At DAYTONA, Friday\u2019s Nextera Energy 250 and Saturday\u2019s doubleheader featuring the Beef. It\u2019s What\u2019s For Dinner. \u00ae<\/sup> 300 for the NASCAR Xfinity Series and the Lucas Oil 200 Driven by General Tire for the ARCA Menards Series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For information and a complete schedule of all racing events as part of Speedweeks, log onto www.DAYTONA500.com<\/a> or call 1-800-PITSHOP. Tickets are also available for the track\u2019s tripleheader weekend on the DAYTONA Road course (Feb. 19-21), featuring NASCAR\u2019s top three national series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 10, 2021) – Alex Bowman swapped car numbers for the 2021 season \u2013 from 88 to 48 – but has certainly retained his Daytona magic, earning the pole position for Sunday\u2019s DAYTONA  500 (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), giving the Hendrick Motorsports driver a record fourth consecutive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","category-touring-series-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27721,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27720\/revisions\/27721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}