Last year, Cole Custer dominated the championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, despite not being among the Championship 4. This year, the No. 00 car won the pole for Saturday’s (Nov. 17) Ford EcoBoost 300. And if he wins the race? He’ll earn a NASCAR XFINITY Series title along with it.
Custer laid down a lap of 165.598 mph, less than a half-of-a-tenth quicker than Championship 4 rival Christopher Bell (165.345 mph). Each driver ran just one lap.
John Hunter Nemechek was third on the board (164.755 mph) with Championship 4 driver Tyler Reddick fourth (164.534 mph). Austin Cindric (164.044 mph) rounded out the top five.
Justin Allgaier, Elliott Sadler, Brandon Jones, Matt Tifft and Daniel Hemric, the final championship-eligible driver, completed the top 10.
SEGAL: SADLER HAS ‘NO REGRETS’ ON RETIREMENT
Ryan Reed will start 11th in his final drive for Roush Fenway Racing. Ryan Truex will start 15th in what he also expects to be his final race with Kaulig Racing. Spencer Gallagher will roll off 17th in his final scheduled NASCAR start.
Josh Williams, Stephen Leicht, Josh Bilicki, Bayley Currey and Tim Viens did not qualify. Landon Cassill made the field running Morgan Shepherd’s No. 89.
XFINITY SERIES FORD ECOBOOST 300 STARTING LINEUP
The green flag for this race is scheduled to wave shortly after 3:30 p.m. ET. Custer is the defending race winner.
About the author
Dustin joined the Frontstretch team at the beginning of the 2016 season. 2020 marks his sixth full-time season covering the sport that he grew up loving. His dream was to one day be a NASCAR journalist, thus why he attended Ithaca College (Class of 2018) to earn a journalism degree. Since the ripe age of four, he knew he wanted to be a storyteller.
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