William Byron wins Cup pole at Kansas Speedway

Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron won the pole Saturday for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway.

Byron’s fast lap was clocked at 179.206 miles per hour.

Byron and Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson will start the race from the front row.

Completing the top 10 Saturday were Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr., Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin, Daniel Suarez and Ryan Blaney.

The pole win was the career 10th for Byron, who has won two races this year.

The numbers from the first 11 races of the 2023 season indicate that Tyler Reddick’s move to 23XI Racing appears to be paying off. With more than two-thirds of the season left, though, questions remain about Reddick’s championship potential with his new team.

I was much more confident that Kyle Busch moving to RCR would benefit Busch than I was that Reddick’s move away from RCR would be good for him. In contrast to RCR’s storied history, 23XI turns three this year.

Newness is not necessarily a negative, as Trackhouse Racing proved last year. But it’s one thing for one of the best drivers in NASCAR history to bring his trove of experience to a well-established team. It’s another for a driver in his fourth year of full-time Cup Series competition to join a team still finding its feet. But I’m happy to report that Reddick seems to be doing just as well with his new team as Busch is with his.

After 11 races, Reddick is performing better at 23XI than he did at RCR last year in most metrics. After starting 2023 with two DNFs, Reddick won at COTA, the sixth race overall and the first road course of the season.

As the table below shows, Reddick has four top-five finishes in 2023 compared to three in 2022. This year, he was running 20th or better when