DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — With a fast lap and a little help from Mother Nature, Chandler Smith secured the pole for Friday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver threw down a lap of 49.672 seconds (181.189 mph) in Round 1, but immediately after the preliminary trials, NASCAR went into a lightning hold and called off the final round. The top 10 drivers in Round 1 would’ve fought for the pole.
Austin Hill, the winner in of the last three spring races, will start second with A.J. Allmendinger, Joe Graf Jr. and Jesse Love completing the top five. Ryan Truex, Sheldon Creed, Riley Herbst, Anthony Alfredo and Josh Williams round out the top 10.
No cars failed to qualify, but JR Motorsports’ Sam Mayer will have to come from the rear after an issue on his lap. Mayer mis-shifted while getting up to speed and caused damage to his engine. He posted the slowest lap of the 38 cars.
Friday’s Wawa 250 is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.