BRISTOL, Tenn. – After being the fastest man in NASCAR Xfinity Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway, Ty Gibbs continued his dominant day at The Last Great Colosseum by streaking to the pole for Friday night’s Food City 300.
The last driver to go out in qualifying, Gibbs turned a lap of 15.653 seconds (122.584 mph) in the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Supra to top a 41-driver field at the .533-mile concrete oval.
“It was a good lap,” Gibbs noted after qualifying. “This is a good track for us and, obviously, we carried over some good speed from practice into qualifying. It’s a long race tonight; 300 laps is a lot of time and the track will change from the start of the race to the end, but hopefully we can stay on top of our adjustments and go get another checkered flag.”
Gibbs edged out short-track ace Josh Berry, who will join the grandson of Coach Joe Gibbs on the front row after a time of 15.715 seconds (122.100 mph) in the No. 8 Harrison’s Workwear Chevrolet Camaro for JR Motorsports.
Justin Allgaier will line up third alongside A.J. Allmendinger, with Sam Mayer filling out the top five after leading the way for a lengthy portion of the qualifying session.
Starting sixth through 10th are Sammy Smith, Jeb Burton, Daniel Hemric, Noah Gragson and Ryan Sieg.
Deepest in the field among the usual Xfinity Series contenders is Sheldon Creed, who will roll off 22nd after a disappointing qualifying run.
With 41 cars on the property for 38 spots, Brennan Poole, Chad Finchum and Dawson Cram were the three drivers who failed to qualify.
The Food City 300 is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. ET start Friday night, with live coverage on USA Network, the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.