Love Scores Talladega Pole Three-Peat; United Rentals 250 Lineup
Jesse Love, a NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff contender, took the pole position for Saturday's United Rentals 250 at Talladega Superspeedway. The driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet turned a fast lap time of 52.605 seconds (182.036 mph), which allowed him to snag his third consecutive pole position at the 2.66-mile superspeedway.
Love, the last car to go on track in the final round of qualifying, topped rookie contender William Sawalich by 0.097 seconds for the top starting spot.
Christian Eckes was the third-fastest qualifier in the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, and he will be joined in Row 2 by fellow rookie contender Carson Kvapil, who, like Love, is a Playoff contender.
Love is optimistic that having Eckes, in an RCR-alliance car, behind him on the initial start of the race could pay big dividends on Saturday afternoon.
“Obviously, we’ve got a couple of Welcome [North Carolina, the location of the RCR campus] cars up front, so just use that to our advantage, and our car is as fast as Xfinity Mobile, that always helps, the track position makes it a little bit easier for the first few laps, have a couple less gray hairs by the end of it,”Love said in a post-qualifying interview on The CW. “Looking forward to today, obviously, we need to get stage points, that’s priority number one, and hopefully we can either be mathematically locked in by the end of it, or win our way in. Either way, would love to take next week at Martinsville off, and just focus on Phoenix.”
Austin Hill, Jeb Burton, Connor Zilisch (Playoff contender), Justin Allgaier (Playoff contender), Aric Almirola, and Brandon Jones (Playoff contender) rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series race.
While it was a relatively strong qualifying session for the eight NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff drivers and the two additional cars in the NASCAR Xfinity Series owner's championship hunt, there were three Playoff contenders, who will start from the outside of the top-10 on Saturday afternoon.
Sammy Smith was the first Playoff driver on the outside looking in with an 11th-place qualifying run. The Haas Factory Team duo of Sam Mayer and Sheldon Creed also qualified sub-top-10 in 13th and 16th.
Taylor Gray, who was eliminated from the Playoffs at the Charlotte Roval, had his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota lose power during his qualifying run. He took his car to the garage, and was unable to record a lap time. As a result, the rookie contender will start from the final starting spot in the 38-car field.
Official starting lineup for the NASCAR Xfinity Series United Rentals 250 at Talladega Superspeedway (Race 31 of 33):
Pos | Car | Driver | Lap time | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2* | Jesse Love (P) | 52.605 | 182.036 |
2 | 18 | William Sawalich # | 52.709 | 181.701 |
3 | 16 | Christian Eckes # | 52.709 | 181.677 |
4 | 1 | Carson Kvapil # (P) | 52.765 | 181.484 |
5 | 21* | Austin Hill | 52.786 | 181.412 |
6 | 27 | Jeb Burton | 52.799 | 181.367 |
7 | 88* | Connor Zilisch # (P) | 52.814 | 181.316 |
8 | 7* | Justin Allgaier (P) | 52.838 | 181.233 |
9 | 19* | Aric Almirola | 52.839 | 181.230 |
10 | 20* | Brandon Jones (P) | 52.866 | 181.137 |
11 | 8 | Sammy Smith (P) | 53.171 | 180.098 |
12 | 11 | Brenden Queen | 53.189 | 180.037 |
13 | 41* | Sam Mayer (P) | 53.197 | 180.010 |
14 | 31 | Blaine Perkins | 53.236 | 179.878 |
15 | 10 | Daniel Dye # | 53.253 | 179.821 |
16 | 00* | Sheldon Creed (P) | 53.343 | 179.517 |
17 | 26 | Dean Thompson # | 53.345 | 179.511 |
18 | 99 | Connor Mosack (i) | 53.350 | 179.494 |
19 | 91 | Mason Maggio | 53.350 | 179.494 |
20 | 48 | Nick Sanchez # | 53.354 | 179.480 |
21 | 51 | Jeremy Clements | 53.418 | 179.265 |
22 | 71 | Ryan Ellis | 53.440 | 179.192 |
23 | 39 | Ryan Sieg | 53.462 | 179.118 |
24 | 4 | Parker Retzlaff | 53.483 | 179.048 |
25 | 5 | Caesar Bacarella | 53.483 | 179.048 |
26 | 32 | Jordan Anderson | 53.491 | 179.021 |
27 | 42 | Anthony Alfredo | 53.506 | 178.971 |
28 | 07 | Nick Leitz | 53.507 | 178.967 |
29 | 70 | Leland Honeyman | 53.515 | 178.940 |
30 | 25 | Harrison Burton | 53.518 | 178.930 |
31 | 45 | Josh Williams | 53.583 | 178.713 |
32 | 35 | David Starr | 53.587 | 178.700 |
33 | 14 | Garrett Smithley | 53.645 | 178.507 |
34 | 44 | Brennan Poole | 53.819 | 177.930 |
35 | 28 | Kyle Sieg | 54.151 | 176.839 |
36 | 53 | Joey Gase | 54.177 | 176.754 |
37 | 74 | Carson Ware | 55.387 | 172.893 |
38 | 54 | Taylor Gray # | 0.000 | 0.000 |
(P) indicates NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff Driver
* indicates NASCAR Xfinity Series Owner Playoff Car
# indicates Rookie of the Year contender
(i) indicates a driver ineligible to score points
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Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.
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