Justin Allgaier’s quest to work his way from the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs Round of 8 into the Championship 4 will begin from the pole position at a track, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where the JR Motorsports driver won earlier this year.
Allgaier, the defending series champion, secured the top starting spot for Saturday evening’s Focused Health 302 at the 1.5-mile speedway, with a 30.157-second (179.063 mph) lap time. This marks the 12th career pole position for the 39-year-old defending series champion, and it comes in his 501st career start.
Starting Lineup: Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
For JR Motorsports, the team that Allgaier drives for, it was a clean sweep of the front row starting spots, as Connor Zilisch, who comes into this weekend’s race with 10 wins on the season, will start from the outside of the front row.
Ripping off the grid directly behind the JR Motorsports teammates will be Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones, who is among the eight drivers still battling for a championship, and Aric Almirola, who drives the No. 19 car that is still in championship contention for the owner’s championship Playoffs.
Nick Sanchez, who was eliminated from Playoff contention last weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, will start fifth in the No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet, which will feature a blue paint scheme this weekend.
Jesse Love (Playoff contender), Christian Eckes, Taylor Gray (fastest in practice), Carson Kvapil (Playoffs), and Sheldon Creed (Playoffs) rounded out the top-10 qualifiers in Saturday’s session.
Sammy Smith and Sam Mayer were the two Playoff contenders who qualified outside of the top 10 on Saturday. They will start 15th and 16th, respectively, in the Focused Health 302.
Parker Retzlaff suffered a broken axle in practice and was unable to qualify his No. 4 Alpha Prime Racing Chevrolet in the session. And as a result, he will start from the 37th position. Likewise, Ryan Ellis was unable to turn a qualifying lap after blowing an engine in practice. Ellis will start shotgun on the field from the 38th position in the No. 71 DGM Racing Chevrolet.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is set for Saturday, October 11, and will be televised on The CW with coverage set to kick off at 7:30 PM ET. The Performance Racing Network (PRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of the event on Saturday evening.
