It really doesn’t get much closer than that…
NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie contender Connor Zilisch will be credited with the pole for Saturday’s North Carolina Education Lottery 250 at Rockingham Speedway, after posting a lap one-thousandth of a second faster than second-place.
The 18-year-old driver claimed his fourth pole in what will be his 14th start in the Xfinity Series, posting a lap time of 22.630 seconds (149.536mph).
Zilisch won’t be at the head of the field when the green flag drops on Saturday, though, since the JR Motorsports team was forced to change a flat tire on the No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet.
“Yeah, it went flat right off of Turn 4. Frustrating, you qualify on the pole and have to start at the back, it’s a little frustrating, but our WeatherTech Chevrolet is fast, it was fast in practice yesterday, hopefully the track will widen out and make my job a little bit easier.”
Parker Retzlaff, driving the No. 4 Chevrolet for Alpha Prime Racing, earned a surprising front row start for Saturday’s event at Rockingham and came just a whisker short of securing his third career pole in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, Retzlaff secured the first-ever top-10 starting spot for Alpha Prime Racing, and now this weekend at Rockingham, the Wisconsin-native has dramatically improved upon that.
Last weekend at Bristol, @Parker79P earned @TeamAlphaPrime the team’s first top-10 qualifying result in the Xfinity Series…
One week later, Retzlaff has one-upped himself, starting on the front row for Saturday’s race at Rockingham.#NASCAR | ?: @Sxlvce, @TobyChristieCom pic.twitter.com/7qJWNZsX01
— Joseph Srigley (@joe_srigley) April 19, 2025
Nick Sanchez was able to put forward a good qualifying effort on Saturday, starting third in his No. 48 Big Machine Spiked Coolers Chevrolet. Kasey Kahne, making his first NASCAR National Series start since 2017, qualified an impressive fourth.
William Sawalich rounded out the top five in the No. 18 Toyota GR Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing. Brandon Jones, Jesse Love, Justin Allgaier, Christian Eckes, and Austin Hill completed the top-10 qualifiers.
Other notables include Sam Mayer (11th), Sammy Smith (13th), Taylor Gray (15th), Sheldon Creed (17th), Justin Bonsignore (19th), Carson Kvapil (25th), Daniel Dye (27th), and Harrison Burton (29th).
With 40 drivers attempting to compete in Rockingham’s first NASCAR Xfinity Series event in two decades, two drivers were forced to pack up and head back to the shop early.
Katherine Legge (No. 32 Jordan Anderson Racing) and Dawson Cram (No. 74 Mike Harmon Racing) failed to make the event.
The North Carolina Education Lottery 250 at Rockingham Speedway will take place on Saturday, April 19th at 4:30 PM ET on The CW, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
