In his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series qualifying debut, Connor Zilisch impressed with a pole-winning performance at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, on Friday.
Not only that, but the Trackhouse Racing development driver also set a new track record at the 3.41-mile road course with his fast lap of 2 minutes, 11.983 seconds in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado.
The prior qualifying track record (2:13.613) was set by Ross Chastain in 2023.
TRICON Garage’s Corey Heim followed 0.7 seconds behind in the No. 11 Toyota. The two drivers will start on the front row of the XPEL 225, starting at 1:30 p.m. (ET) on Saturday.
It will be Zilisch’s first career national NASCAR start. The 17-year-old’s qualifying performance gave him a spot in NASCAR history as the 27th driver to ever win the pole award in their first national start.
Moving on to the rest of the lineup, Taylor Gray qualified third in the No. 17 TRICON entry, Rev Racing driver Nick Sanchez was fourth and NASCAR Cup Series full-timer Chastain completed the top five in the No. 45 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet.
Jack Hawksworth, Tanner Gray, Truck Series rookie Layne Riggs, Ty Majeski and last week’s winner Christian Eckes rounded out the top 10 in Friday’s qualifying.
Reigning series champion Ben Rhodes experienced a mechanical issue during practice early in the day, which meant that the No. 99 ThorSport Racing driver was unable to post a lap during qualifying. Thad Moffitt was also unable to qualify.