William Byron did well to honor Jeff Gordon in No. 24 "fiery" throwback scheme by rocketing to the top of the charts in qualifying on Saturday. Just over a tenth of a second separated the drivers between second and tenth on the time sheets, but second to first was nearly the same margin as Byron put down a new Darlington record for the current Gen-7 race car.
Byron lapped the historic track in 28.774s, beating RFK Racing's Ryan Preece by 0.084s. This is Preece's best qualifying effort at Darlington and just the fourth front row start of his entire career.
