Alex Tagliani earns first career oval pole for Alberta Has Energy 300

When Alex Tagliani announced that he was running the majority of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series schedule this year, some people wondered how long it’d take him to get used to running ovals in a stock car. The answer – not long at all. On Friday afternoon, Tagliani would score his first career oval pole, setting a time of 12.514 seconds in qualifying for the Alberta Has Energy 300. It marks Tagliani’s fifth career pole oval, as he had previously sat on the pole for four road course events.

It seems that the Quebec native is adapting quickly as Tagliani was running in the top-five at Autodrome Chaudiere last month when contact took him out of contention. Now he looks for his second straight top-five finish following a fifth last weekend at Circuit ICAR.

Mark Dilley, who led the final practice session, will start alongside Tagliani on the front row in the Friday night race on the recently paved oval. Dilley is hoping to claim his first victory of the season after coming up one spot short at Chaudiere after dueling with Jason Hathaway throughout the race.

Points leader J.R. Fitzpatrick was third, followed by L.P. Dumoulin and Andrew Ranger.  Joey McColm, Scott Steckly, Jason Hathaway, D.J. Kennington and James Van Domselaar rounded out the top 10.

The green flag for the Alberta Has Energy 300 is scheduled for 8:35 p.m. MT.