Taylor Gray is set to lead the field to green in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Dover Motor Speedway — but, by looking at the practice charts, that might seem confusing.
A native of Denver, North Carolina, Gray laid down an absolute heater in qualifying, getting around the one-mile concrete oval in 23.578 seconds (152.685mph) to sit at the top of the leaderboard in time trials.
After a 20-minute practice session, Gray found himself ranked 29th — a combination of some struggles in the early part of practice, as well as the second group just having overall slower lap times.
However, the Joe Gibbs Racing crew worked on the Operation 300 Toyota GR Supra and got it to the point where they could contend for a pole, and maybe even the victory later on.
“I think, unloading off the truck, we just missed some travel stuff a little bit, we were really hard on the splitter and worked throughout practice to make our car better,” Gray told The CW. “I’m super proud of all of my guys at Joe Gibbs Racing, I feel like [we have a] really fast Operation 300 Toyota GR Supra.”
STARTING LINEUP: 2025 NXS BetRivers 200 at Dover
At the end of the single-vehicle qualifying session, Gray had an advantage nearing a tenth of a second over Nick Sanchez, a fellow Rookie of the Year (ROTY) contender in the No. 48 Chevrolet for Big Machine Racing.
The third position was also occupied by a rookie driver, with Connor Zilisch, the series’ most recent winner at Sonoma Raceway, starting Saturday’s 200-lap contest tucked behind a row of his fellow rookies.
Brandon Jones, a teammate of Gray at Joe Gibbs Racing, qualified in fourth place, with NASCAR Cup Series regular Ross Chastain rounding out the top five, competing once again in the No. 9 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports.
Aric Almirola, Justin Allgaier, William Sawalich, Harrison Burton, and Jeb Burton completed the top-10 for Saturday’s event.
Other notables include Rajah Caruth in 16th place, locking himself and Jordan Anderson Racing’s No. 32 Chevrolet into the show. Just behind in 21st and 22nd are Jake Finch and Lavar Scott, both of whom will make their NASCAR Xfinity Series debuts later this afternoon.
Kaulig Racing has been struggling in a major way this weekend at Dover with its NASCAR Xfinity Series program, and after some disappointing practice times, the trio will start 29th (Josh Williams), 30th (Daniel Dye), and 31st (Christian Eckes).
With 40 drivers entered in Saturday’s BetRivers 200 at Dover Motor Speedway, two drivers, Glen Reen and David Starr, both driving for Joey Gase Motorsports, were sent packing early prior to the drop of the green flag.
Coverage of the BetRivers 200 at Dover will take place on Saturday, July 19 at 4:30 pm ET on The CW, Performance Racing Network (PRN), and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).
