Corey Day may have seen his championship outlook become cloudier after a run-in with William Sawalich a few weeks ago, but on Saturday, the Hendrick Motorsports driver secured a significant track position advantage ahead of Saturday night’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Day took his second career pole position on the strength of a 29.858-second lap time (180.856 mph) around the 1.5-mile intermediate oval near Sin City. That lap time allowed Day to score the pole position by a margin of 0.019 seconds over Sheldon Creed, the series point leader, who earlier in the day announced he’ll move to Sam Hunt Racing in 2027.
Brandon Jones will start third, while Brent Crews, in fourth, was the lone non-Chase contender inside the top-10 of the qualifying session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Taylor Gray, Rajah Caruth, Justin Allgaier, Sam Mayer, Carson Kvapil, and Jesse Love rounded out the top-10 fastest drivers in qualifying for the Focused Health 302.
Chase contenders who failed to qualify inside the top-10 were Austin Hill in 12th, Parker Retzlaff in 17th, and Sammy Smith in 23rd.
Creed comes into this weekend with an 11-point lead over Allgaier. There are six races remaining in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase for the championship.
Official Focused Health 302 Starting Lineup
| Pos | Car | Driver | Team | Make | Lap time | Diff | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17 | Corey Day (C) | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 29.858 | 0.000 | 180.856 |
| 2 | 00 | Sheldon Creed (C) | Haas Factory Team | Chevrolet | 29.877 | 0.019 | 180.741 |
| 3 | 20 | Brandon Jones (C) | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 29.918 | 0.060 | 180.493 |
| 4 | 19 | Brent Crews # (C) | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 29.934 | 0.076 | 180.397 |
| 5 | 54 | Taylor Gray (C) | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 29.986 | 0.128 | 180.084 |
| 6 | 88 | Rajah Caruth (C) | JR Motorsports | Chevrolet | 30.021 | 0.163 | 179.874 |
| 7 | 7 | Justin Allgaier (C) | JR Motorsports | Chevrolet | 30.044 | 0.186 | 179.736 |
| 8 | 41 | Sam Mayer (C) | Haas Factory Team | Chevrolet | 30.045 | 0.187 | 179.730 |
| 9 | 1 | Carson Kvapil (C) | JR Motorsports | Chevrolet | 30.333 | 0.475 | 178.024 |
| 10 | 2 | Jesse Love (C) | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 30.386 | 0.528 | 177.713 |
| 11 | 24 | Harrison Burton | Sam Hunt Racing | Toyota | 30.426 | 0.568 | 177.480 |
| 12 | 21 | Austin Hill (C) | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 30.429 | 0.571 | 177.462 |
| 13 | 48 | Patrick Staropoli # | Big Machine Racing | Chevrolet | 30.530 | 0.672 | 176.875 |
| 14 | 27 | Jeb Burton | Jordan Anderson Racing | Chevrolet | 30.535 | 0.677 | 176.846 |
| 15 | 32 | Andrew Patterson | Jordan Anderson Racing | Chevrolet | 30.620 | 0.762 | 176.355 |
| 16 | 44 | Brennan Poole | Alpha Prime Racing | Ford | 30.621 | 0.763 | 176.350 |
| 17 | 99 | Parker Retzlaff (C) | Viking Motorsports | Chevrolet | 30.628 | 0.770 | 176.309 |
| 18 | 96 | Anthony Alfredo | Viking Motorsports | Chevrolet | 30.654 | 0.796 | 176.160 |
| 19 | 28 | Kyle Sieg | RSS Racing | Chevrolet | 30.665 | 0.807 | 176.097 |
| 20 | 39 | Ryan Sieg | RSS Racing | Chevrolet | 30.732 | 0.874 | 175.713 |
| 21 | 51 | Jeremy Clements | Jeremy Clements Racing | Chevrolet | 30.740 | 0.882 | 175.667 |
| 22 | 26 | Dean Thompson | Sam Hunt Racing | Chevrolet | 30.845 | 0.987 | 175.069 |
| 23 | 8 | Sammy Smith (C) | JR Motorsports | Chevrolet | 30.847 | 0.989 | 175.058 |
| 24 | 31 | Blaine Perkins | Jordan Anderson Racing | Chevrolet | 30.848 | 0.990 | 175.052 |
| 25 | 42 | Matt DiBenedetto | Young's Motorsports | Chevrolet | 30.911 | 1.053 | 174.695 |
| 26 | 87 | Lee Pulliam | Peterson Racing | Chevrolet | 31.017 | 1.159 | 174.098 |
| 27 | 91 | Mason Maggio | DGM Racing | Chevrolet | 31.158 | 1.300 | 173.310 |
| 28 | 92 | Josh Williams | DGM Racing | Chevrolet | 31.491 | 1.633 | 171.478 |
| 29 | 02 | Ryan Ellis | Young's Motorsports | Chevrolet | 31.536 | 1.678 | 171.233 |
| 30 | 45 | Lavar Scott # | Alpha Prime Racing | Chevrolet | 31.617 | 1.759 | 170.794 |
| 31 | 0 | Garrett Smithley | SS-GreenLight Racing | Chevrolet | 31.658 | 1.800 | 170.573 |
| 32 | 53 | Blake Lothian | Joey Gase Motorsports | Chevrolet | 31.721 | 1.863 | 170.234 |
| 33 | 55 | Joey Gase | Joey Gase Motorsports | Chevrolet | 31.946 | 2.088 | 169.035 |
| 34 | 07 | Josh Bilicki | SS-GreenLight Racing | Chevrolet | 32.125 | 2.267 | 168.093 |
| 35 | 47 | Dawson Cram | Mike Harmon Racing | Chevrolet | 32.619 | 2.761 | 165.548 |
| 36 | 18 | William Sawalich | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 0.000 | -29.858 | 0.000 |
