It’s been a solid beginning to the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series campaign for Sammy Smith, which continued at Las Vegas Motor Speedway by winning the pole for Saturday’s The LiUNA!, the first mile-and-a-half event of the new season.
Smith, behind the wheel of the No. 8 Pilot Chevrolet for the second straight year, posted a lap time of 29.435 seconds (183.455mph) to secure the pole position over his rookie teammates at JR Motorsports, Carson Kvapil and Connor Zilisch.
“Yeah, it was a very high commitment, just hats off to all these Pilot guys, Phillip [Bell] and all these guys did a really good job,” said Sammy Smith. “We have been focusing on qualifying these last couple races to really help improve our starting position. The goal is to keep it out front tomorrow.”
The pole position for Saturday’s event marks the third for the Johnston, Iowa-native in the second-tier series, and his first since the 2023 Xfinity Series season-finale, which also served as his final weekend with Joe Gibbs Racing.
“I think so,” Smith said when asked if he could keep it up front. “We were solid in practice, I felt like we needed to work on our long-run pace a bit, I think it will be keeping up with the racetrack with rubber and being a little bit hotter and the Cup cars before, and hopefully, you know, we can keep it upfront.”
Carson Kvapil posted the second-quickest time in qualifying, less than a tenth of a second behind his teammate. It’s a career-best start for the Mooresville, North Carolina native and just his second top-five start — the first of which came two weeks ago at Circuit of The Americas (COTA).
Connor Zilisch completed a top-three sweep of qualifying for JR Motorsports, putting his No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet in third place.
Taylor Gray was the third-quickest rookie, in fourth place, and the best qualifier for Joe Gibbs Racing, who won last Spring’s event at this racetrack with John Hunter Nemechek.
Sam Mayer completed the top five in Friday’s single-vehicle qualifying session.
Justin Allgaier, despite ranking sixth, was the slowest of the four JR Motorsports entries in qualifying and will have Jesse Love, Nick Sanchez, and Jeb Burton behind him rounding out the top-10.
Other notable drivers include Austin Hill (14th), Brandon Jones (15th), Daniel Dye (16th), Christian Eckes (17th), Ryan Sieg (20th), and Sheldon Creed (23rd).
The LiUNA! at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will take place on Saturday, March 15 at 4:30 PM ET on The CW, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
