It’s been an unfortunate start to William Sawalich’s maiden campaign in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, with the Joe Gibbs Racing driver sitting 24th in series point standings at the halfway point of the regular season.
However, by scoring a pole position ahead of Saturday’s Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway, the Eden Prairie, Minnesota-native is looking to make a significant turnaround for the No. 18 Toyota GR Supra team.
Sawalich, driving the Starkey-sponsored No. 18, turned a lap time of 30.860 seconds (155.152mph) to secure the pole for Saturday’s 250-mile contest, beating NASCAR Xfinity Series veteran Austin Hill for the top spot.
It’s the second career pole position for Sawalich in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, the first of which came in last season’s finale at Phoenix Raceway.
Austin Hill will start on the outside of the front row, driving for Richard Childress Racing. The driver of the No. 21 Chevrolet posted a lap of 30.944 seconds.
STARTING LINEUP: Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville
Sam Mayer will start the race from third place, with Justin Allgaier and Sheldon Creed completing the race’s top-five starters. Carson Kvapil, Nick Sanchez, Aric Almirola, Ross Chastain, and Connor Zilisch rounded out the top-10.
Other notables starting outside the top-10 include Ryan Sieg (11th), Christian Eckes (12th), Brandon Jones (13th), Sammy Smith (14th), Jesse Love (15th), Corey Day (21st), Taylor Gray (24th).
Kyle Sieg, who paced NASCAR Xfinity Series practice on Saturday afternoon, will start the event from 28th-place.
With 40 drivers on the entry list for Saturday’s Tennessee Lottery 250, two drivers were sent home prior to the green flag, those being Katherine Legge (Jordan Anderson Racing) and Glen Reen (Joey Gase Motorsports).
The green flag for the Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway will drop at 7:00 PM ET on The CW, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
