Shane van Gisbergen has qualified 19th for this weekend’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Spring Race at Martinsville Speedway.
The Kaulig Racing driver set a best lap of 19.996 seconds on the shortest track of the calendar and lines up off the tenth row next to Corey Heim.
Van Gisbergen was the 25th driver to take to the track and initially placed ninth, but ten late runners went on to better his time.
The Kiwi had earlier gone 14th fastest in the weekend’s sole practice session, completing 33 laps for a best time of 20.420.
Kaulig Racing teammate AJ Allmendinger was fastest in practice with a 20.168 before qualifying 15th. The third Kaulig Racing driver, Josh Williams, will start from 23rd.
Brandon Jones, who is 10th in the 2024 standings, claimed the pole with a 19.692-second effort, equaling the track record and going three-tenths faster than van Gisbergen.
However, his team found a hairline crack on a brake rotor after the session, which may require a change and shift him to the rear of the field for the race.
Cole Custer lines up on the front row, falling just 0.066 short of the pole-setting time.
Championship leader Chandler Smith will also start at the back, having locked up and crashed into the wall in qualifying.
His team, Joe Gibbs Racing, will return his car to their workshop tonight to work on it before returning for Saturday’s race.
Tomorrow’s race begins at 11.30 am (NZ Time) and will be shown live on ThreeNow.
