Rain Postpones O’Reilly Series Practice, Cancels Qualifying; Zilisch on Pole

The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ first race weekend at Chicagoland Speedway in seven years got off to a moist start on Friday afternoon as rain washed out Friday’s planned practice session at the 1.5-mile speedway in Joliet, IL.

With the one-hour practice session being of more importance to the teams, NASCAR chose to axe Saturday’s qualifying session in favor of postponing Friday’s practice session to the following day. As a result, the starting lineup was set by the metric performance formula, which meant Connor Zilisch, who is driving the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet this weekend, will start from the pole position in Saturday’s race at Chicagoland Speedway.

Zilisch joked about his “pole-winning run” after it was announced that he would start the race from the top spot in the field.

“On the pole tomorrow. Laid down a heater,” Zilisch posted on X.

Zilisch will be joined on the front row by Brent Crews, the 18-year-old rookie contender for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Carson Kvapil will start from the third position, and he’ll be joined in the second row of the starting grid by Corey Day, the driver of the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Parker Retzlaff, Jesse Love, Anthony Alfredo, Sheldon Creed, Sam Mayer, and Sammy Smith rounded out the top-10 starters for Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Cuervo 300 at Chicagoland Speedway.

Official Cuervo 300 Starting Lineup