Cole Custer has made history on the streets of Chicago, scoring the pole for Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series The Loop 121 on the Chicago Street Course.
Piloting the No. 00 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing, Custer put down a quick lap of 90.421 seconds (87.590mph) in the second round of qualifying, winning the pole position by just under two-hundredths of a second over Sheldon Creed.
Creed, who will be credited with a second-place starting spot, will have to start at the rear of the field, after crashing hard while pushing to score the pole position in the final round of qualifying.
John Hunter Nemechek and Connor Mosacks, teammates this weekend for Joe Gibbs Racing, will share the second row to start Saturday’s event, posting the third and fourth quickest times in the final round of time trials.
Austin Hill will start from fifth place. Justin Allgaier, Brett Moffitt, Sammy Smith, Daniel Hemric, and Parker Kligerman completed the top-10 in qualifying.
Justin Marks, who led the sole practice session for the NASCAR Xfinity Series, failed to make the final round of qualifying despite showing significant speed and will start from 12th place.
Sam Mayer will start the race from 14th, albeit with some repaired damage, after a bizarre incident in the closing minutes of qualifying between him and Dexter Bean, which saw the No. 1 slam into the tire barrier.
After the incident, the JR Motorsports driver was unhappy with Bean and showed his displeasure on the way back to the pit road to assess the damage.
With 43 drivers showing up to attempt to make the Chicago Street Race, five cars had to go home without competing in the historic event. Those drivers were Joey Gase (#08), Jeffrey Earnhardt (#45), Dexter Stacey (#66), Dawson Cram (#74), and Dexter Bean (#91).
Qualifying Results / Starting Lineup – The Loop 121:
Qualifying Results: 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series The Loop 121 at Chicago
