The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series field will be all jumbled up when the green flag drops for Saturday’s National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 250 at Martinsville Speedway, after a bout of inclement weather disrupted qualifying from the half-mile paperclip on Friday.
NASCAR was forced to halt the time trial session after just six cars hit the racetrack, and, because of lingering and intensifying showers, the sanctioning body was eventually forced to cancel the session altogether, thus setting the starting lineup via the rule book (AKA the Performance Metric).
Justin Allgaier, winner in two of the last three NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series events (Phoenix and Darlington), will lead the field to green on Saturday afternoon in his No. 7 BRANDT Fresh Agriculture Chevrolet for JR Motorsports. The series points leader ranked 24th overall in practice.
A teammate of Allgaier’s at JR Motorsports this weekend, Rajah Caruth, returns to the No. 88 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro with a bang and will start on the outside of the front row for Saturday’s event. Before the start of the season, the half-mile paperclip was the site of Caruth’s best finish in the second-tier division.
STARTING LINEUP: NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series NFPA 250 (Martinsville)
Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Brandon Jones, a former winner at Martinsville Speedway, and 17-year-old Brent Crews, who begins his full-time journey this weekend in the No. 19 Mobil 1 Toyota GR Supra, will share the second row. Carson Kvapil, another teammate at JR Motorsports, will start fifth.
EchoPark Speedway winner Sheldon Creed, who has come so close on multiple occasions at Martinsville Speedway, will roll from sixth, with Hendrick Motorsports driver Corey Day in seventh. Defending NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion Jesse Love will start eighth, with Sammy Smith and Parker Retzlaff completing the top-10.
Lee Pulliam, making his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut in a fifth JR Motorsports entry, will start 12th after pacing the series’ sole 50-minute practice session. Pulliam and crew chief Phillip Bell elected to make a mock qualifying run late in the session, which catapulted him to the top of the speed charts.
PRACTICE RESULTS: NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series NFPA 250 (Martinsville)
Other notable drivers who will start Saturday’s 250-lapper from outside the top-10 include Sam Mayer (11th), Taylor Gray (13th), William Sawalich (16th), Austin Hill (26th), and NASCAR Cup Series regular Ross Chastain (38th).
Several drivers will be taking the green flag in their first NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series event without a qualifying effort under their belts, those being Pulliam (who, as previously mentioned, will start 12th), Andrew Patterson (who will start 19th in the No. 32 for Jordan Anderson Racing), and Luke Baldwin (who will start 29th for Hettinger Racing).
Justin Carroll, a part-timer in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, also attempted to qualify for his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut for Joey Gase Motorsports, but failed to qualify, along with Dawson Cram in the No. 74 Chevrolet Camaro for Mike Harmon Racing.
The NFPA 250 will take place Saturday, March 28 at 3:30 PM ET on The CW.
