Creed Ends Love’s Atlanta NXS Qualifying Streak

Sheldon Creed during NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying at EchoPark Speedway. (Max Corcoran/Race Face Digital photo)

HAMPTON, Ga. – One fast Ford, plus a pop-up flash of lightning near EchoPark Speedway, combined to give Sheldon Creed his first NASCAR Xfinity Series pole in nearly a year on Friday afternoon.

Creed turned a lap of 32.107 seconds (172.673 mph) in the first round of Kennametal Pole Qualifying, which ended up being the top time in general after a lightning hold forced the cancellation of the 10-driver pole shootout.

That meant the full starting grid was determined by the lone fully-completed round, putting Creed out front in the No. 00 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Ford Mustang for Haas Factory Team.

It’s Creed’s fourth career Xfinity Series pole and breaks a qualifying drought dating back to August of last year at Michigan Int’l Speedway. Friday also marked the first pole under the Haas Factory Team banner.

“To get the first pole for HFT, finally, is a great feeling,” said Creed afterward. “Just extremely proud of everyone that puts work into these cars, because we’ve had some ups and downs the last few weeks. To see them keep grinding it out and continuing to build fast hot rods gives me a lot of confidence as a driver and motivation to go out and perform for this entire group.

“Excited to go from the front row tonight, and I feel like we’ve got some handling built into the car, so hopefully we can race for a win when it gets down to crunch time.”

Even more notable, Creed’s pole marked the first Xfinity Series pole for Ford on a drafting track since Dakoda Armstrong at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway in July 2014, a span of nearly 11 years.

Five-time Atlanta Xfinity winner Austin Hill will flank Creed on the front row, missing out on top honors in qualifying by .071 seconds after a lap of 32.178 seconds (172.292 mph) in the No. 21 Bennett Chevrolet.

Creed’s teammate Sam Mayer and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones share row two, with Jesse Love – who was going for his fourth straight Xfinity Series pole in Atlanta – ending up fifth and seeing his streak snapped.

“I think it’s definitely harder to build runs here because it’s more inviting for people to pass you when you drag back to get a push, but I’ve done everything but win here. We’ve had fast cars,” Love noted. “Definitely a bummer that the second round got cut from the weather, because I do think we could have picked up at least a spot or two … but thankful for the safety rules NASCAR puts in place and I believe we’ll have a strong race under the lights.”

Rookie-of-the-year contenders Connor Zilisch and Taylor Gray start sixth and seventh, respectively, with DGM Racing’s C.J. McLaughlin putting together his career-best qualifying run in eighth.

Harrison Burton and Aric Almirola completed the top 10, with Almirola being the only driver to post a lap in round two before the pop-up lightning flash scuttled the remainder of the session.

Big Machine Racing’s Nick Sanchez was the first driver who failed to transfer out of round one, with a lap of 32.322 seconds (171.524 mph) in the No. 48 Chevrolet leaving him .012 seconds short of advancing.

Other notables starting deeper in Friday night’s lineup include Sammy Smith (14th), defending series champion Justin Allgaier (16th), rookie Daniel Dye (22nd), sports-car and open-wheel veteran Katherine Legge (23rd), Anthony Alfredo (25th), and Josh Williams (30th).

With 38 cars in attendance for 38 starting spots, no one failed to qualify for the 17th race of the year.

Broadcast coverage of the Focused Health 250 is slated for 7:30 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.