FORT WORTH, Texas – NASCAR Xfinity Series championship favorite Chase Briscoe will start from the pole during Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Briscoe earned the top spot on the grid thanks to NASCAR’s metric qualifying formula.
The NASCAR matrix factors in a driver’s lap speed ranking from the previous race, the last race finish for both driver and owner and the car’s current rank in the owner standings.
Lap speed is weighted at 15 percent, previous race finish at 25 percent for the driver and owner results and owner points position at 35 percent to calculate the final metric score.
Driver and owner playoff-eligible entries are ranked at the front of the field based on their metric scores from lowest to highest, with all non-playoff entries lined up behind the playoff cars in similar fashion.
Briscoe earned the top spot with a perfect metric score of 1.0, factoring in his win last weekend at Kansas Speedway, the fastest lap from that event and point-leading status.
Recent Talladega Superspeedway winner Justin Haley, who signed an extension with Kaulig Racing on Monday, will join Briscoe on the front row for the Texas Xfinity race.
Brandon Jones and Ryan Sieg will share the second row of the grid, with Justin Allgaier, Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, Jeb Burton (whose JR Motorsports team is contending in the owner playoffs) and Noah Gragson filling out the remaining playoff drivers up front.
Michael Annett starts highest among the non-playoff contenders in 10th place.
To view the complete starting lineup and performance matrix, click here.
The O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 is set for a 4:30 p.m. ET start on Saturday, with live coverage on NBC, the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.