Shane Van Gisbergen has earned the pole position for Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series The Loop 110 at the Chicago Street Course, and honestly, that’s about as surprising as the sun coming up this morning.
The three-time Supercars champion posted the quickest time in the final round of qualifying on Saturday, making his way around the 2.140-mile street circuit in Chicago, Illinois in 89.448 seconds, which equates to an average speed of 88.543mph.
It’s the second NASCAR Xfinity Series pole position for the Auckland, New Zealand native, who scored back-to-back wins on road courses earlier this Summer at Portland and Sonoma while driving the No. 97 Chevrolet Camaro for Kaulig Racing.
NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson will start alongside Van Gisbergen in Saturday’s event, coming up just 0.013 seconds short of capturing the pole position in the No. 17 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.
Connor Mosack, making his first of two scheduled starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, will qualify in third place, with NASCAR Cup Series driver Ty Gibbs, back behind the wheel of the No. 19 Toyota GR Supra in fourth, and Sam Mayer rounding out the top five.
John Hunter Nemechek and Parker Kligerman will be credited with sixth and seventh-place starting spots, but will both have to drop to the rear of the field to start the race, after making engine changes at certain points throughout the weekend.
Xfinity Series rookie Jesse Love was eighth-fastest, with Chandler Smith and defending Chicago winner Cole Custer completing the top-10. AJ Allmendinger, one of the strongest road course racers in the Xfinity Series, will start from 11th, after narrowly missing out on the final round of qualifying.
RESULTS: NASCAR Xfinity Series Qualifying at Chicago
It was an eventful practice and qualifying on Saturday, which has produced an interesting starting lineup with several notable drivers starting in the middle or back of the pack. Austin Hill (13th), Sammy Smith (14th), Riley Herbst (20th), Ryan Sieg (22nd), Josh Williams (30th), and Brandon Jones (32nd) are among the full-timers who faced no issues but will start poorly in Saturday’s relatively short event.
Justin Allgaier will start the race from 36th, after crashing into the tire barriers in Turn 4 early in practice, damaging his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro. The damage was significant, but not severe until Alon Day exited the corner and slammed into the stopped Chevrolet, destroying his Alpha Prime Racing machine.
Sage Karam was another driver, in the No. 26 for Sam Hunt, who had issues on-track during practice, which ultimately led to him not being able to post a qualifying time. Thus, the former NTT IndyCar Series driver will start from the 38th.
Sheldon Creed will start from 37th, after showing an incredible pace in practice, but having an engine issue in the closing seconds of the session. His Joe Gibbs Racing crew was unable to fix the issue in time to qualify for the No. 18 Toyota GR Supra.
With the biggest Xfinity Series entry list of the season, five drivers failed to qualify for the second-ever race at the Chicago Street Course. Those drivers include Ty Dillon (#4 JD Motorsports), Thomas Annunziata (#6 JD Motorsports), Brad Perez (#35 Joey Gase Motorsports), Alon Day (#45 Alpha Prime Racing), and Kenko Miura (#53 Joey Gase Motorsports.
