Following his pole position in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Shane van Gisbergen doubled down on Saturday with another first-place qualifying effort ahead of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway ROVAL.
It was van Gisbergen’s first career pole in the Cup Series. He was followed by Cup Series regular season champion Tyler Reddick and fellow Kaulig Racing driver A.J. Allmendinger. Notably, Allmendinger is the defending winner at the ROVAL.
“Thank you to this Kaulig Racing team,” van Gisbergen said. “It was a last minute deal to come and run this Cup race here, so thanks to Matt (Kaulig) and the guys for letting me run their car, and for WeatherTech coming on board.
“Our Chevy is really quick. What an amazing day.. I’m lost for words.”
SVG had a fastest speed of 99.246 mph, a mere 0.057 seconds ahead of Reddick.
Following the front three, a pair of Team Penske Fords in Joey Logano (fourth) and Austin Cindric (fifth) made up the top five.
“It was a solid qualifying effort,” Logano said. “We need to be faster. The guys we are racing, the 9 (Elliott) is right behind us and the 45 (Reddick) is second, so it is going to be a battle tomorrow for sure.”
Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson qualified sixth ahead of teammate Chase Elliott in seventh.
Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace and William Byron completed the top 10.
Other playoff drivers outside the top 10 included: Christopher Bell (12th), Daniel Suárez (13th), Ryan Blaney (14th), Alex Bowman (17th), Denny Hamlin (18th) and Chase Briscoe (25th).