Hendrick drivers making headway

Byron claims pole at Pocono as team eyes breakthrough

LONG POND, Pa. — William Byron turned the fast lap at Pocono in the latest sign that Hendrick Motorsports may have turned the corner and can stamp itself a NASCAR championship contender.

Hendrick Motorsports was long the home of Hall of Famers and champions, from Jeff Gordon to Jimmie Johnson, and was always a threat to place a driver in the championship race. Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. retired, and Johnson’s seven reigns as Cup Series champion at times seem like a distant memory as he’s stuck on a winless streak that stretches two years.

The organization with 12 Cup titles was locked out of the championshipdeciding finale in 2018 for the second consecutive year.

Hendrick is on the brink of a breakthrough.

Byron turned a lap of 173.494 mph Saturday to win the pole for Sunday’s race at Pocono Raceway. He won his second straight pole in the No. 24 Chevrolet, following up his first-place start last week at Charlotte. Byron opened the season with a pole in the Daytona 500 but has yet to win a Cup race in 49 career starts.

“It just improves your ability in the race to control your race,” Byron said of the pole. “We made some good improvements overnight for sure, and that showed in qualifying. Really, I think that’s going to translate to the race.”

Byron was one of four Hendrick Motorsports drivers to finish in the top 10 last week in the CocaCola 600. Chase Elliott is the only Hendrick driver with a win this season. Hendrick’s Alex Bowman was runner-up in three straight races before finishing seventh last week. Johnson, 43, has two straight top 10s and his drive to pass Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt and set a NASCAR record with eight championships remains as strong as ever.

Joe Gibbs Racing remains the class of NASCAR with eight wins this season and Team Penske drivers have four wins. No other organization has won a Cup race this season.

Elliott has four-straight top-10s at Pocono and Johnson has three wins on the 21⁄2-mile track. Hendrick has 17 career wins at Pocono but none since Earnhardt swept the two races in 2014.

Byron hopes starting first leads to his first win in the Cup Series.

“Last year was just a dog fight to try and run well,” he said.