Sammy Smith will lead the field to the green flag in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday (Nov. 4). Smith, who earned his first career win at Phoenix in the spring, turned a lap of 132.582 mph.
After a week of controversy and bad blood stemming from last week’s controversial finish, Austin Hill returned to the front row, qualifying second with a lap of 132.572 mph.
John Hunter Nemechek turned the fastest lap among the Championship 4 contenders. His speed of 132.528 mph will put the No. 20 in third to start the race. Myatt Snider and Sheldon Creed round out the top five.
Chandler Smith will start sixth, while row four consists of championship contenders Cole Custer and Justin Allgaier in seventh and eighth.
Riley Herbst and Connor Mosack will line up ninth and 10th.
Only one Championship 4 contender missed the top 10. Sam Mayer claims this absence, qualifying 16th.
Rajah Caruth needed to qualify on speed and achieved that, slotting in 13th.
Brad Perez did not qualify after he slid sideways and slammed the wall in turn 1. Leland Honeyman, on call for Daniel Dye to drive the No. 44, also did not qualify.
Xfinity Series Lineup at Phoenix
The NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship will run on Saturday (Nov. 4) at Phoenix Raceway. The race starts at 7 p.m. ET on the USA Network
About the author
Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!
A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.