Zilisch Lands 8th Xfinity Pole of Season; Roval Starting Lineup

We're running out of superlatives to heap onto the shoulders of 19-year-old Connor Zilisch, who captured his eighth pole position of the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season on Saturday afternoon at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. The driver of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet turned a fast lap of 85.054 seconds (96.503 mph), which was nearly a half-second faster than the next closest competitor.

Zilisch will attempt to collect his 10th win of his Rookie of the Year campaign on Saturday afternoon in the Blue Cross NC 250.

Justin Allgaier, Zilisch's JR Motorsports teammate and the defending NASCAR Xfinity Series champion, will lineup alongside on the front row as he secured the second starting spot. Connor Mosack, Sammy Smith, and Carson Kvapil made it a complete sweep of the top-five starting spots for JR Motorsports, a team that has had its foot on the throat of the competition all season long in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Heading into this weekend's race, JR Motorsports has won 16 of the 28 races of the season.

Corey Day, the young Hendrick Motorsports development driver, will start from sixth in the No. 17 HMS Chevrolet, while Sam Mayer, Jesse Love, Kaz Grala, and Austin Green rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for Saturday afternoon's race.

This event will serve as the final race of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs Round of 12. Zilisch, Brandon Jones, and Justin Allgaier have already locked their positions in the Round of 8 prior to Saturday's race, but there are still five spots up for grabs.

Here are the starting spots for all of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff contenders:

Zilisch (1st), Allgaier (2nd), Sammy Smith (4th), Carson Kvapil (5th), Sam Mayer (7th), Jesse Love (8th), Aric Almirola (11th), Sheldon Creed (13th), Nick Sanchez (14th), Austin Hill (16th), Taylor Gray (17th), Brandon Jones (23rd), and Harrison Burton (28th).

With 42 cars attempting to secure a spot in the 38-car field, four drivers and teams were sent back to their shops after the qualifying session. Those that failed to make the race included Garrett Smithley, Thomas Annunziata, Austin J. Hill, and Andrew Patterson.

Here is the official starting lineup for Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series Blue Cross NC 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. Race 29 of 33.

Pos	Car	Driver	Lap time	Speed
1	88	Connor Zilisch # (P)	85.054	96.503
2	7	Justin Allgaier (P)	85.514	95.984
3	9	Connor Mosack (i)	85.797	95.668
4	8	Sammy Smith (P)	85.973	95.472
5	1	Carson Kvapil # (P)	86.047	95.390
6	17	Corey Day	86.260	95.154
7	41	Sam Mayer (P)	86.375	95.027
8	2	Jesse Love (P)	86.390	95.011
9	24	Kaz Grala (i)	86.412	94.987
10	87	Austin Green	86.472	94.921
11	19	Aric Almirola	86.516	94.873
12	44	Brennan Poole	86.533	94.854
13	00	Sheldon Creed (P)	86.565	94.819
14	48	Nick Sanchez # (P)	86.590	94.792
15	18	William Sawalich #	86.608	94.772
16	21	Austin Hill (P)	86.657	94.718
17	54	Taylor Gray # (P)	86.659	94.716
18	16	Christian Eckes #	86.663	94.712
19	50	Preston Pardus	86.735	94.633
20	99	Matt DiBenedetto	86.789	94.574
21	07	Alex Labbe	86.842	94.516
22	39	Ryan Sieg	86.920	94.432
23	20	Brandon Jones (P)	87.052	94.288
24	91	Josh Bilicki	87.058	94.282
25	53	Sage Karam	87.084	94.254
26	4	Parker Retzlaff	87.105	94.231
27	11	Daniel Hemric (i)	87.113	94.222
28	25	Harrison Burton (P)	87.157	94.175
29	71	Ryan Ellis	87.323	93.996
30	27	Jeb Burton	87.372	93.943
31	92	Leland Honeyman	87.506	93.799
32	45	Josh Williams	87.517	93.787
33	26	Dean Thompson #	87.562	93.739
34	42	Anthony Alfredo	87.645	93.651
35	31	Blaine Perkins	87.663	93.631
36	51	Jeremy Clements	88.143	93.121
37	28	Kyle Sieg	88.513	92.732
38	10	Daniel Dye #	89.002	92.223
DNQ	14	Garrett Smithley	87.994	93.279
DNQ	70	Thomas Annunziata	88.238	93.021
DNQ	35	Austin J. Hill	88.574	92.668
DNQ	32	Andrew Patterson	89.584	91.624

(P) indicates NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff driver
# indicates Rookie of the Year contender
(i) indicates a driver ineligible to score points

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