John Hunter Nemechek, who many have rumored to be heading to the NASCAR Cup Series in 2024, beat one of the best drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series — Denny Hamlin — for the pole Saturday at Darlington Raceway.
With a lap time of 29.804 sec. (164.998 mph), Nemechek will lead the NASCAR Xfinity Series field to green in the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200. Nemechek’s lap was 0.009 sec. faster than Hamlin.
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For Nemechek, who has collected five checkered flags during the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, this is just the second pole of the year. This marks the 26-year-old’s third career pole in NASCAR Xfinity Series competition.
Hamlin will roll alongside Nemechek on the front row of Saturday afternoon’s race. Hamlin, who drives the No. 11 machine in the NASCAR Cup Series, will run the No. 19 Toyota Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing in this event.
This is the second-consecutive NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Darlington Raceway that the No. 20 and No. 19 JGR entries have swept the front row. In the spring, Nemechek scored the pole while Ryan Truex secured the runner-up starting spot in the No. 19 car.
Justin Allgaier, who was the final driver to take the track in the qualifying session, narrowly missed out on the pole, but will start from the third position. Cole Custer took the No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang to the fourth starting position, and Sam Mayer, who collected a sizable Darlington stripe on his run, will start fifth.
Daniel Hemric, Josh Berry, Brandon Jones, Austin Hill, and Chandler Smith will make up the remainder of the top-10 starters for Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series showdown in Darlington.
Surprisingly, NASCAR Cup Series stars Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch weren’t ultra-impressive in qualifying as both drivers will lineup from the 12th and 14th starting spots respectively.
Sheldon Creed, who spun in practice earlier in the morning on Saturday, nearly tagged the outside wall on his qualifying lap and lost a lot of momentum to avoid colliding with the wall. The driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro will start from the 16th spot.
The No. 44 Alpha Prime Racing entry will be the lone one that missed the 38-car field for Saturday’s race. Dawson Cram, who was added to the driver lineup mid-week, will not make it for the race at Darlington after turning a 30.942 sec. lap time in qualifying.
NASCAR Xfinity Series Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 Starting Lineup:
Qualifying Results: 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series Sport Clips 200 at Darlington
