Larson, Byron lock out all-Hendrick front row for the Clash

Hendrick Motorsports drivers Kyle Larson and William Byron locked down the front row for Wednesday night’s Clash race at Bowman Gray Stadium as the organization looks to make it two straight wins in the event.

Larson will start from the pole. The reigning Cup Series champion laid down the fastest lap of 14.13 seconds at 63.663 mph in qualifying.

NASCAR broke the field down into six groups and gave drivers four minutes on track for qualifying. Larson ran seven total laps on his way to the pole.

“I think I know which lap it was, but on my dash, it didn’t read anything like what we actually ran,” Larson told RACER and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “On my dash, I read like a 14.22 or 23 and I was like, ‘All right, well, at least I’m in the race. But that’s not very good.’ So, I was trying to push a little bit harder and making mistakes and then Cliff [Daniels] came on and said we were first and the (No.) 24 was second and I was like, ‘Really?’

“Yeah, I wasn’t expecting that, so that was nice to hear. But it should be a fun race here, and hopefully we can manage our rear tires enough and make good decisions and just try to be there at the end.”

Byron qualified second with a lap of 14.14 seconds at 63.645 mph.

The two Hendrick drivers were followed by the four drivers from Joe Gibbs Racing. Ty Gibbs qualified third (63.622 mph), Chase Briscoe qualified fourth (63.618 mph) and Christopher Bell qualified fifth (63.604 mph). Denny Hamlin ended up sixth (63.60 mph).

Bubba Wallace qualified seventh (63.591 mph), Chris Buescher qualified eighth (63.528 mph) and Ross Chastain qualified ninth (63.452 mph). Tyler Reddick completed the top 10 (63.403 mph).

The session locked in the first 20 drivers for Wednesday night’s main event. All other drivers will go to the Last Chance Qualifier, which will advance the top two finishers.

The final driver in the 23-car field will be the highest-ranked from the 2025 championship standings who did not lock in through qualifying or the Last Chance Qualifier.

The 20 drivers locked into the Clash are:

1.     Kyle Larson

2.     William Byron

3.     Ty Gibbs

4.     Chase Briscoe

5.     Christopher Bell

6.     Denny Hamlin

7.     Bubba Wallace

8.     Chris Buescher

9.     Ross Chastain

10.  Tyler Reddick

11.  Chase Elliott

12.  Carson Hocevar

13.  Kyle Busch

14.  Joey Logano

15.  Austin Dillon

16.  Ryan Blaney

17.  Shane van Gisbergen

18.  Ryan Preece

19.  Connor Zilisch

20.  Daniel Suarez

The drivers in the Last Chance Qualifier are:

1.     Josh Berry

2.     Michael McDowell

3.     Austin Cindric

4.     Corey LaJoie

5.     Alex Bowman

6.     Riley Herbst

7.     Cody Ware

8.     AJ Allmendinger

9.     Cole Custer

10.  John Hunter Nemechek

11.  Todd Gilliland

12.  Ty Dillon

13.  Noah Gragson

14.  Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

15.  Zane Smith

16.  Erik Jones

17.  Chad Finchum

18.  Burt Myers

Chase Elliott is the defending winner of the Clash. Elliott started from the pole and led 171 of 200 laps.

“I definitely think track position is really important,” Larson said. “I think that’s something – we didn’t have it last year, and our race was kind of crazy. Martinsville, we’ve qualified well, really every time we’ve gone there, and we’ve been in the top five all race long. So, hopefully, if we can stay out of trouble tonight and keep it up front, we’ll have a decent shot at the end to make something happen when things go crazy or if we’re still the leader, try to get away from the craziness.

“But Bowman Gray is a cool place. It’s cool to see fans here in the stands, and hopefully we can put on a good show for them.”