Shane van Gisbergen has been handed an advantage for Sunday’s Xfinity Series race at Circuit of the Americas after fastest qualifier Kyle Larson was relegated to the rear of the field.
Larson’s penalty comes after his team, Hendick Motorsport, was forced to repair a cracked brake rotor following the session.
That elevates Ty Gibbs to the front row. However, Gibbs is also serving a penalty and drops back, which puts Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger on the front row.
Gibbs will start Monday’s Cup Series race from second, while van Gisbergen qualified 12th.
The Kaulig Racing #97 had earlier gone fastest in the sole practice session for the Xfinity Series, setting a best lap of 2:14.730, 0.358 seconds quicker than second-best AJ Allmendinger.
Qualifying for the Xfinity Series race saw the field split into two groups of 20 for 15-minute timed runs. The top five drivers from both progressed to a final round. The top ten grids were then decided in a second 10-minute round.
Larson led the way with a 2:12.377 in Group A, ahead of Sam Mayer, Ty Gibbs, Allmendinger, and Cole Custer, who also progressed.
Van Gisbergen was amongst the last to set a representative time in Group B, but his 2:12.758 put him to the top of the time sheets with a margin of three-tenths with only two minutes remaining.
This time remained the fastest, and van Gisbergen comfortably progressed to Round 2 with a safety cushion of over one second.
Gibbs led the way entering the final minutes of Round 2 until Larson set a 2:12.077, giving him a provisional pole by over half a second.
Van Gisbergen followed through as time ran up to jump to second, four-tenths off Larson.
Gibbs held on for third, ahead of Allmendinger, Sage Karam, Sheldon Creed, Custer, Josh Williams and Mayer, respectively.
Van Gisbergen will return to the track for NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at 4.30 am Sunday (NZ Time), ahead of the Xfinity Series race at 10.00 am. The EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix Cup Series race begins at 8.30 am on Monday.
Coverage of both races will be shown live and free-to-air on ThreeNow.
