Chandler Smith picked up his first pole of the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season and the fourth pole of his Xfinity Series career on Friday at Daytona International Speedway. The driver of the No. 81 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supra turned a fast lap of 49.672 seconds (181.189 mph) in the opening round of qualifying.
And as it turns out, he wouldn’t need to back his time up in the final round.
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Starting Lineup: 2024 NXS Wawa 250 at Daytona
At the conclusion of the opening round of Friday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying session for the Wawa 250 at Daytona, lightning struck within eight miles of the 2.5-mile superspeedway. That put on-track activity into a 30-minute hold, and as a result, the final round of the session was canceled.
Austin Hill will line up alongside Smith as the driver of the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro secured the second starting spot with a lap just 0.018 seconds off the pace of Smith’s pole-winning run.
AJ Allmendinger, Joe Graf Jr., Jesse Love, Ryan Truex, Sheldon Creed, Riley Herbst, Anthony Alfredo, and Josh Williams rounded out the top 10 fastest qualifiers in the session.
0.173 seconds separated the pole from the 10th-place starter in NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying around the superspeedway at Daytona Beach, Florida.
Sam Mayer had an issue while shifting from third to fourth gear on his qualifying lap. As a result, the driver damaged his engine and clocked in with an ultra-slow 59.348-second (151.648 mph) lap. The driver of the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro will start at the rear in Friday night’s Wawa 250.
