Brandon Jones has always been very strong at Phoenix Raceway, so, especially after winning the pole for Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race, the field has to be glad he’s not part of the heavyweight fight for the title.
Piloting the No. 20 Menards / Magickwood Toyota GR Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing, Jones blasted to his 14th career pole in the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday, just hours before the drop of the green flag for the season-finale.
With a lap time of 27.490 seconds (130.957mph), Jones was able to outrun his teammate — and the most recent winner in the Xfinity Series — Taylor Gray by over a tenth of a second to secure the first-place starting spot for the 200-lap contest.
Jones was eliminated from the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs after last weekend’s event at Martinsville Speedway.
Taylor Gray will start alongside his teammate in Saturday’s event, as he contests the final event of his 33-race rookie season in NASCAR’s second-tier division.
Sheldon Creed, who remains in search of his first career victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, will roll from third in the No. 00 Pit Boss Ford for Haas Factory Team. This weekend’s event will mark the last for the organization under the Ford Racing banner.
In a remarkable event that you certainly don’t see often in qualifying, JR Motorsports teammates Connor Zilisch and Justin Allgaier — both of whom are competing for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship tonight — ran the EXACT same lap time, down to the thousandth of a second.
Connor Zilisch will start from fourth, with the defending NASCAR Xfinity Series champion, Justin Allgaier, rounding out the top five.
STARTING LINEUP: NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race at Phoenix
Jesse Love will start Saturday’s all-important championship race from sixth place, with Aric Almirola in seventh. Almirola, driving the No. 19 YoungLife Toyota GR Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing, will be representing the organization in a battle for the Owner’s Championship.
Nick Sanchez, Dean Thompson, and Ryan Sieg completed the top-10. Sieg is piloting the No. 41 this weekend in place of Sam Mayer, who was suspended by NASCAR this week for intentionally wrecking Jeb Burton after the checkered flag last weekend at Martinsville Speedway.
Carson Kvapil was the only Championship 4 driver to qualify outside of the top-10, putting his No. 1 Bass Pro Shops / Clarience Chevrolet in 14th. Austin Hill, who like Almirola, is only in the battle for the Owner’s Championship, will start 16th.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race will take place on Saturday, November 1 at 7:30 PM ET on The CW, Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
