NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie Jesse Love earned his second consecutive pole award during qualifying for Saturday’s RAPTOR King of Tough 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Love set a fast lap 31.874 seconds (173.935 mph) in the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
By doing so, he became the first driver in series history to qualify on the pole at the first two races of the season.
“It’s really cool to break a few records,” Love said. “The biggest thing about that is it speaks volumes about how good our team is. It’s awesome that we have another good shot at it tomorrow. My car drove really good at Daytona and tomorrow I’m going to air on the side of caution until crunch time. Our cars are really good.”
Love’s teammate, Austin Hill, qualified second with a 31.916-second lap (173.706 mph) in his No. 21 entry. It is also the second week in a row that Love and Hill will start alongside each other on the front row. Notably, Hill went on to win last week’s season opener at Daytona Int’l Speedway while Love finished 20th.
Part-time Xfinity Series racer John Hunter Nemechek, who bumped up to the Cup Series with Legacy Motor Club this year, qualified third with a fast lap of 31.947 seconds (173.537 mph) in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Stewart-Haas Racing driver Riley Herbst was fourth, while Big Machine Racing’s Parker Kligerman was fifth.
Sam Mayer, A.J. Allmendinger, Ryan Truex, Justin Allgaier and Sheldon Creed completed the top 10 in qualifying.
Shane van Gisbergen qualified 13th with a 32.337.