Ty Gibbs defeated fellow full-time NASCAR Cup Series racer Kyle Busch for the NASCAR Xfinity Series pole at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday afternoon. Gibbs, 21, turned a 30.475 second (177.194 mph) lap to secure his eighth-career pole in NASCAR Xfinity Series competition.
The pole for Saturday’s BetMGM 300 is Gibbs’ first-ever at the 1.5-mile speedway in Concord, North Carolina.
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The young racer felt good about his qualifying lap, but says that he had to endure a very rough Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“I felt pretty good. Honestly, this place is sealer heaven. I’ve never seen so much sealer on a race track ever. Every five feet there is some type of sealer mark or line. It is so rough,” Gibbs explained. “I feel like I needed a mouthpiece in my car honestly. It was beating me up – I’ve ran at dirt tracks that were smoother than this place (laughter), which I’m not saying is bad. This place just has its own character and its own technique. You never feel great here, I think. (Turns) three and four are really rough.”
Gibbs was flexed into the driver lineup for this weekend’s race last minute in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota GR Supra over Aric Almirola, who had been initially listed as the driver of the car earlier in the week.
According to Gibbs, he found out on Wednesday or Thursday that he would be running Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series event.
“I found out on Thursday morning, early Thursday morning. I didn’t run any sim so that was really nice. It was a peaceful easy week. It might have been Wednesday morning, sorry,” Gibbs stated following his pole winning run.
Busch, who is making his first NASCAR Xfinity Series start of the season, clocked in 0.123 sec. off of the pace that was set by Gibbs in the session. Busch is running a third entry, the No. 33 Chevrolet Camaro, for Richard Childress Racing this weekend.
Chandler Smith was the highest-qualifying NASCAR Xfinity Series regular in the field as he’ll start from the third position in the No. 81 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Jesse Love, and Jeb Burton rounded out the top-five starters in the 38-car field.
Cole Custer, Sheldon Creed, Austin Hill, Justin Allgaier and Brandon Jones clocked in sixth through 10th in the starting lineup.
Other notables in the field include AJ Allmendinger (11th), Sam Mayer (13th), Noah Gragson (18th), Parker Kligerman (28th), and Chase Elliott (30th).
With 40 cars on the entry list, two drivers failed to make the field. Those two were Jade Buford in the No. 74 Mike Harmon Racing Chevrolet and Akinori Ogata, who was running in the No. 35 Joey Gase Motorsports entry.
Ogata was one of two drivers to spin out during their qualifying runs in the session, the other being JJ Yeley in the No. 14 SS-GreenLight Racing car.
