Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images North America
He was fastest in both Kentucky Speedway practices yesterday, and now Erik Jones has cemented himself as the race winning favourite after scoring his eighth pole of the season.
Jones will lead the field to green in the NASCAR XFINITY Series race tonight after setting the fastest lap in round three of qualifying. Jones won the pole with a fast lap of 28.845 seconds, more than a tenth of a second quicker than teammate Daniel Suarez in second.
Two-time winner this season Elliott Sadler will start third with Ty Dillon in fourth.
Sam Hornish, Jr. qualifed fifth in the No. 2 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, and will be the highest starting non-Chase driver. Another non-Chaser in Matt Tifft will start on the outside of the third row. Tifft is back in the No. 18 for Joe Gibbs Racing after missing several races for the removal of a brain tumor.
Brendan Gaughan, Ryan Blaney, Darrell Wallace, Jr., and Justin Allgaier rounded out the top-10 in qualifying.
Five of the remaining 12 Chase drivers will start outside the top-10. Brennan Poole will start 11th, Brandon Jones starts 14th, Blake Koch starts 15th, Ryan Reed starts 16th and Ryan Sieg will start 19th.
Timmy Hill in the No. 72 was the lone DNQ for the VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 at Kentucky.
