Zilisch Rockets To Pole Position For O'Reilly Race At COTA

We're likely in for another road course showdown between Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen in Saturday's NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Focused Health 250 at Circuit of the Americas, as both drivers, who are Trackhouse Racing teammates in the NASCAR Cup Series, are piloting Chevrolets for JR Motorsports in this event.

On Friday, Zilisch achieved an advantage over van Gisbergen to kick off the race weekend as he snatched the pole position in group qualifying. Zilisch, driving the No. 1 Chevrolet, turned a lap time of 1 minute, 37.740 seconds around the 2.4-mile Austin, TX road course.

This marks the 10th pole position of the 19-year-old driver's NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series career and it comes in just his 37th career start. Zilisch, who won this race a season ago, will look to go back-to-back on Saturday afternoon.

No surprise to anybody, van Gisbergen slotted in right behind Zilisch with the second-fastest lap time in the session, and he'll begin Saturday's race on the front row alongside Zilisch. Van Gisbergen clocked in more than two-tenths-of-a-second off the lap time set by Zilisch.

Austin Hill, who won the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway, will start from the inside of row two in the third position, while Brandon Jones turned a better-than-expected lap to secure the fourth starting spot.

Justin Allgaier, Carson Kvapil, Brent Crews, Sam Mayer, Sheldon Creed (last week's race winner), and Sammy Smith rounded out the top-10 in Friday's qualifying session.

Austin J. Hill, not to be confused with Austin Hill (driver of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet), was the lone driver to not turn a lap in the session after he suffered a mechanical failure in practice. However, Hill had enough owner points to advance to the starting lineup and will start 38th on Saturday.

With 40 cars on the entry list, that meant that two drivers would be unable to lock into the field as the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series has a maximum field size of 38 cars. The two drivers who failed to make the show were Josh Williams, the driver of the No. 92 DGM Racing Chevrolet, and Tyler Gonzalez, the driver of the No. 5 Hettinger Racing Ford.

Prior to Friday's qualifying session, Sam Mayer paced the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series field in the lone practice session of the weekend. Mayer's Haas Factory Team teammate, Sheldon Creed, was second-fastest in practice, ahead of Austin Green, Jesse Love, and Anthony Alfredo.

Official Focused Health 250 Starting Lineup

1. 1-Connor Zilisch
2. 9-Shane van Gisbergen
3. 21-Austin Hill
4. 20-Brandon Jones
5. 7-Justin Allgaier
6. 91-Carson Kvapil
7. 19-Brent Crews
8. 41-Sam Mayer
9. 00-Sheldon Creed
10. 8-Sammy Smith
11. 2-Jesse Love
12. 17-Corey Day
13. 87-Austin Green
14. 54-Taylor Gray
15. 18-William Sawalich
16. 96-Anthony Alfredo
17. 50-Preston Pardus
18. 39-Ryan Sieg
19. 88-Rajah Caruth
20. 25-Nick Sanchez
21. 32-Ross Chastain
22. 55-Sage Karam
23. 24-Harrison Burton
24. 31-Blaine Perkins
25. 07-Josh Bilicki
26. 44-Brennan Poole
27. 26-Dean Thompson
28. 0-Alex Labbe
29. 99-Parker Retzlaff
30. 51-Jeremy Clements
31. 45-Lavar Scott
32. 48-Patrick Staropoli
33. 02-Ryan Ellis
34. 27-Jeb Burton
35. 28-Kyle Sieg
36. 42-JJ Yeley
37. 30-Baltazar Leguizamon
38. 35-Austin J. Hill
DNQ 92-Josh Williams
DNQ 5-Tyler Gonzalez