Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Talladega Superspeedway is set to be a new experience for Joey Gase, a long-time competitor in the second-tier series, and co-owner of Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen.
While the Grand Rapids, Iowa-native is a veteran of the second-tier series, having a career total of 13 starts at the 2.66-mile superspeedway, the Ag-Pro 300 will mark the first time that Gase begins a NASCAR Xfinity Series event from the top five, let alone the top-10.
Piloting the No. 53 Hoover AV / Eternal Fan Chevrolet for his self-owned operation, Gase managed to lay down the fourth-quickest lap time (52.938 seconds) in the first round of NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying from Talladega Superspeedway, clocking in under four-tenths of a second slower than polesitter Jesse Love.
.@JoeyGaseRacing is starting a career-best 4th tomorrow at @TALLADEGA??@HooverAV | @1eternalfan | @Luckiestmansc pic.twitter.com/AgGhYAccPj
— Joey Gase Motorsports (@J_G_Motorsports) April 25, 2025
It’s (by far) the best start of the 32-year-old driver’s career in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, beating out a 14th-place qualifying result in the No. 93 for RSS Racing during the 2020 Spring event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“We work our butts off each and every week and finally today it’s being rewarded, but we’ve went to bed about [3:00 AM] every night this week and working our butts off on our car to make it as good as we can,” said Gase.
According to Gase, the No. 53 Chevrolet that he piloted to a career-best starting position was a 2010 RHE car, which he purchased from RSS Racing and Ryan Sieg a whole back – the first NASCAR Xfinity Series car he ever owned – and has been racing it on the superspeedways ever since.
“I’m really proud of my guys and our efforts; we never give up. It has not been easy these last few weeks for sure, but we were rewarded here today,” Gase added.
As far as Saturday’s 300-miler at Talladega is concerned, Gase typically sticks to the strategy of laying in the weeds and running in the second draft until the end of the event, before attacking and trying to get the best possible finish.
However, the long-time Xfinity Series competitor says that might change on Saturday, given how close to the front he will be starting.
“This is the best I’ve qualified at a speedway, so normally we just hang out in the second pack and wait to go at the end, but tomorrow we’ll see how it goes at the start and go from there,” Gase said. “I think we’ll take the green and see where we are and go from there.”
In 293 career starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Gase has recorded four top-10 finishes in the series, all of which have come on superspeedways. In 2015, Gase finished a career-best fifth-place finish in the No. 52 for Jimmy Means Racing, and in Spring 2023, he brought his Emerling-Gase Motorsports entry to a ninth-place finish.
Could Saturday at Talladega serve as another incredible moment in Gase’s career? Who knows, if the cards fall right, with a fast car, he could find himself in contention to win the Ag-Pro 300.
