Sheldon Creed Lands Michigan Xfinity Series Pole

Sheldon Creed celebrates his pole-winning lap Friday at Michigan Int'l Speedway. (Ben Earp/NKP for Toyota Racing photo)

BROOKLYN, Mich. – At the same track where he picked up his first major stock car victory in the ARCA Menards Series, Sheldon Creed took a step toward what he hopes will be a drought buster in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Creed earned the pole position for Saturday’s Xfinity Series stop at Michigan Int’l Speedway, the Cabo Wabo 250, by touring the two-mile, D-shaped oval in 41.947 seconds (171.645 mph) with his No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota GR Supra.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s lap in Friday’s qualifying session was seven hundredths of a second better than Riley Herbst, the most recent Xfinity Series winner who took the checkered flag at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last month before the three-week Olympic break.

Creed hopes that his third career Xfinity Series pole and second of the season will finally lead to victory in his 91st series start. He’s currently tied with Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett and past series champion Daniel Hemric for the most runner-up finishes without a win in history, with 10 second-place finishes.

“After practice, I knew our car was pretty fast,” said Creed. “I feel like [at] Indy, going in, we really didn’t know how this [low-horsepower aerodynamic] package would work, and we learned a lot from Indy to bring here to Michigan.

We have a really fast Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and I’m really excited for race day to go from the front row,” Creed added. “I got my first ARCA win here in a Toyota, so that would be awesome to bring everything full circle. A good start and good track position seemed to be a really important in Indianapolis, so this is a great start for us and now we just have to go do our job tomorrow.”

Herbst will share the front row of the grid with Creed after a lap of 42.048 seconds (171.233 mph) in the No. 98 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Despite the news earlier in the year that SHR would shut down at the end of the season, team co-owner Gene Haas will continue SHR’s two Xfinity Series entries next year under the Haas Factory Team banner.

An announcement regarding the two Haas Xfinity teams is slated for Saturday morning at Michigan.

Taylor Gray and defending series champion Cole Custer will share row two of the grid, behind their respective teammates, with Chandler Smith qualifying fifth in a third JGR-prepared Toyota.

JR Motorsports’ Brandon Jones was the top-qualifying Chevrolet driver in sixth, followed by Ryan Sieg, standout rookies Carson Kvapil and Jesse Love, and the fourth JGR entry of John Hunter Nemechek.

Notables starting deeper in the field include Sam Mayer (11th), Noah Gragson (12th), Lawless Alan (15th), making his debut for AM Racing, Justin Allgaier (16th) and three-time season winner Shane van Gisbergen (23rd).

With 39 drivers in attendance for 38 starting spots, the only driver who failed to qualify was Morgen Baird in the Joey Gase Motorsports No. 53.

Broadcast coverage of Saturday’s Cabo Wabo 250 is slated for 3:30 p.m. ET, live on USA, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.