Photo Credit: Noel Lanier/OnPitRoad.com
Brad Keselowski earned his first NASCAR XFINITY Series pole of the season, but it wasn’t an easy task for the driver of the No. 22 Ford as he had to beat three stout Joe Gibbs Racing teammates to do it.
Keselowski’s pole came by virtue of a tiebreaker over Erik Jones when he and Jones both ran the exact same time of 28.891 seconds in the third round of qualifying. Keselowski is ahead of Jones in owners points allowing him to get the pole.
“A tiebreaker. How often do you see that in NASCAR?” Keselowski said after winning the pole.
Jones will start second, but hopes to park his No. 20 Gamestop/Call of Duty Toyota in victory lane in order to earn a spot in the Round of 4 to compete for a championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“We’ll race from second. I think we have a car that can do it,” Jones said. “We’ll just have to be smart, and keep up there. Hang on with Brad (Keselowski). He’s been really fast all weekend. We’ll see how it goes, but I feel good about it.”
Jones’ two teammates Matt Tifft and Daniel Suarez will start third and fourth, followed by Kyle Larson.
Justin Allgaier, Austin Dillon, Elliott Sadler, Kevin Harvick and Brennan Poole rounded out the top-10.
Several Chase drivers will start outside the top-10. They include: Blake Koch in 12th, Ryan Reed in 13th, Brendan Gaughan in 16th and Darrell Wallace, Jr. in 18th.
