Taylor Gray, who is seeking his second career NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race win this weekend at Phoenix Raceway, will fire off from the starting grid in Saturday’s GOVX 200 from the most inviable spot in the field — the pole position.
Gray secured his fourth career series pole position in Friday evening’s qualifying session with a lap time of 27.535 seconds (130.743 mph). The lightning-quick lap time was 0.010 seconds faster than defending series champion Jesse Love, who nailed down the second starting spot for Saturday’s race.
Starting Lineup: NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series GOVX 200 at Phoenix
Admittedly, Gray didn’t expect to be in the running for the pole position, as he was more pleased with his car’s long-run capabilities in practice. Now, he’s ultra-excited for Saturday’s race.
“I honestly felt like our car was really good on the long run, too, so that’s a really good feeling, especially after you’ve had a really good qualifying pace,” said Gray. “Really proud of Jason Ratcliff and all of the No. 54 boys, we brought a really fast Operation 300 Toyota GR Supra. So, excited to get to the race tomorrow and race for the win.”
Love, the driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, secured the title last November with a win at Phoenix Raceway.
Brandon Jones, a Joe Gibbs Racing teammate of Gray, will start from the third position, and he’ll be joined in Row 2 by the pleasant surprise of the qualifying session — Anthony Alfredo, the driver of the No. 96 Viking Motorsports Chevrolet.
The driver and team that failed to make the show for the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway had no issues making the race this weekend. In fact, Alfredo, who will substitute for Alex Bowman in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event, nearly scored the pole position on Friday.
17-year-old Brent Crews continues to astonish as he was the fifth-fastest driver behind the wheel of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supra.
NASCAR Cup Series star William Byron qualified sixth, driving the JR Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet, and he was followed by Sammy Smith, Corey Day, Jeb Burton, and Kyle Sieg inside the top-10 of the qualifying results.
Other notable qualifiers included Austin Hill (13th), Sheldon Creed (16th), Justin Allgaier (17th), and Rajah Caruth (25th).
Caruth is making his first start of the season behind the wheel of the No. 32 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet, as he is splitting his full-time schedule between that car and the No. 88 JR Motorsports team this season.
With 40 cars on the entry list this weekend, that unfortunately meant two drivers would not make the race. For the second week in a row, Josh Williams failed to advance to the starting grid in the No. 92 DGM Racing Chevrolet. Blake Lothian, driving the No. 35 Joey Gase Motorsports entry, was the other driver who failed to make the show.
