HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Chandler Smith turned a lap of 33.067 seconds ( 163.305 mph) to win the pole for Saturday’s Credit One NASCAR AMEX Credit Card 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Smith, who is among the eight drivers fighting for a spot in the Championship 4 of the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs earned his third pole of the season and sixth in 67 career races, driving the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
“I didn’t think it was that good of a lap,” Smith said. “I even came on the radio after and was like, ‘Eh, I don’t know if it was really that great.’ And then my crew chief came on after, joking with me, and made the same noise and said, ‘Yeah, you’re P1.’ So I was like, ‘Oh, cool.’ I’ve had a few of those, even New Hampshire last year, I came over the radio and was like ‘Gosh, that was a horrible lap,’ and got the pole by like a tenth or something like that. I guess, bad-driving race cars or whatever it may be for me in qualifying has good tendencies to get some poles, so we’ll take them.”
Smith’s JGR teammates Sheldon Creed and Aric Almirola completed a top-three sweep for Toyota drivers.
Cole Custer in a Stewart-Haas Racing Ford and Cheverolet driver Justin Allgaier, who announced a contract extension with JR Motorsports earlier in the day, completed the top five.
A.J. Allmendinger, Parker Kligerman, Riley Herbst, Sam Mayer and Sammy Smith completed the top 10.