Connor Zilisch is viewed as a favorite to win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Circuit of The Americas (COTA), so there’s no doubt he should be considered a favorite for Saturday’s Xfinity Series event.
The 18-year-old phenom delivered exactly what the world expected from him during Friday’s on-track activity for the Xfinity Series in Austin, Texas, leading practice and winning the pole for the Focused Health 250.
Posting a lap of 97.262 seconds (88.832mph), Zilisch was able to collect the second pole position of his NASCAR Xfinity Series career against Ross Chastain and William Byron, a pair of NASCAR Cup Series regulars.
“It’s a really good start to the weekend. We had a rough start to the year, but getting the momentum swinging in the right direction is much-needed and what better place to do it than a track like this,” Zilisch said after winning the pole. “Excited for the race tomorrow, just going to have a clean day and execute, which I know we can do.”
STARTING LINEUP: 2025 Focused Health 250 at COTA
Ross Chastain, who will start from outside the front row on Saturday, was about two-tenths of a second slower than Zilisch, his full-time teammate. The Alva, Florida native is contesting his first of five events in the No. 9 of JR Motorsports.
“All of the JR Motorsports cars are fast,” Zilisch added. “Ross [Chastain] and I were sharing a lot of notes together and kinda talking about our laps, and we feel like we’ll have a good plan to go out there tomorrow and take it easy, and hopefully stay at the front.”
William Byron, last season’s NASCAR Cup Series winner at Circuit of The Americas (COTA), was third place in the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.
JR Motorsports had a stranglehold on the top-five, with defending NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Justin Allgaier in fourth, and Rookie of The Year contender Carson Kvapil in fifth.
Corey Heim, making his first Xfinity Series start of 2025 with Sam Hunt Racing, qualified sixth in the No. 24 Upper Deck Toyota GR Supra. Taylor Gray, Sam Mayer, Riley Herbst, and Christian Eckes rounded out the top-10.
Jesse Love and Austin Hill, teammates at Richard Childress Racing and the series’ two race winners in 2025, posted qualifying times good enough for 11th and 12th.
Other notables include: Brandon Jones (13th), Sheldon Creed (14th), Daniel Dye (15th), Sammy Smith (16th), and William Sawalich (23rd).
With 41 drivers entering Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Circuit of The Americas (COTA), three drivers were forced to head home before the green flag dropped in the third event of the season.
Parker Retzlaff (#4), Brad Perez (#45), and Thomas Annunziata (#70) all failed to make the event. Annunziata suffered a mechanical issue in qualifying, while neither Retzlaff nor Perez was able to post a time inside the top 32 and lock into the field.
