Ty Gibbs will start from the pole for Friday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
The Joe Gibbs Racing rookie scored his third consecutive pole with a top speed of 95.98 mph around the half-mile track. Gibbs is the first Xfinity driver with three straight poles since 2016.
The top five was completed by Justin Allgaier, Noah Gragson, Ryan Truex and Sheldon Creed.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., making his lone start of the year, qualified 30th in the JR Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet with a speed of 92.792 mph. He radioed to his team his second lap was a “damn disaster.”
“I’m telling (his JR Motorsports teammates) everything not do because I just did it,” Earnhardt told Fox Sports.
Click here for the starting lineup.
Practice
Before qualifying teams took part in two 20-minute practice sessions.
The overall best lap was posted by Richard Childress Racing’s Sheldon Creed.
“We’ve had a humbling couple of weeks,” Creed told Fox Sports. “The guys did a great job this week and put a lot of time into this car trying to get back to where we thing we belong running up front.”
He was followed by Gibbs, Daniel Hemric, Myatt Snider and Brett Moffitt.
Earnhardt was seventh fastest.
Hemric had the best 10-lap average at 92.473 mph.