Cole Custer will lead the field to green in Saturday’s Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway, after posting the quickest time in a treacherous single-car qualifying session in the Tennessee heat.
Taking to the track late in Saturday’s session, Custer watched as several talented drivers had issues with the 1.33-mile speedway in qualifying, as the intense heat caused several cars to break traction and get sideways.
The 11-time NASCAR Xfinity Series winner wasn’t phased by the difficult conditions, though, posting a time of 30.493 seconds (157.020mph) to score his 15th career pole position in the second-tier series.
Both Chandler Smith and Sammy Smith, rookies in the Xfinity Series this season, avoided problems in qualifying to post the second and third-quickest laps of the session and will be promptly rewarded with track position for Saturday’s 250-mile contest.
Ty Gibbs, a regular in the NASCAR Cup Series, was the fourth-quickest driver in qualifying but wasn’t quite able to back up his performance from Friday’s 50-minute practice session, where he paced the 41-car field.
Riley Herbst, a teammate to Cole Custer, rounded out the top five. Zane Smith, a defacto teammate to Herbst and Custer, will start sixth place, in the No. 28 for RSS Racing, which was prepared by Stewart-Haas Racing.
Austin Hill will start the race from seventh, while Carson Hocevar, the winner of Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event, will roll from eighth in the No. 77 for Spire Motorsports.
After being inside the top five in practice on Friday, Kyle Sieg notched the first top-10 start of his NASCAR Xfinity Series career, placing the No. 29 in the ninth position. Parker Retzlaff completed the top-10.
Other notables starting outside the top-10, include Brandon Jones (15th), Justin Allgaier (16th), Sheldon Creed (19th), John Hunter Nemechek (21st), Josh Berry (23rd), Brett Moffitt (26th), Daniel Hemric (33rd), and Sam Mayer (34th).
Connor Mosack, driving the No. 24 Toyota GR Supra, will start Saturday’s event from last place, 38th, after spinning on the exit of turn four. At the time, the Sam Hunt Racing driver was tracking to take the provisional pole.
Sage Karam (#44), Chad Finchum (#66), and Dawson Cram (#74) were the three cars that failed to qualify for Saturday’s Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway.
Qualifying Results – Tennessee Lottery 250:
Qualifying Results: 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville
