KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Daniel Hemric rocketed to the pole position for the Kansas Lottery 300 during NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying on Saturday morning at Kansas Speedway.
Hemric was the star of the third and final knockout round, touring the 1.5-mile Sunflower State oval in 29.355 seconds (183.955 mph) with the No. 21 South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet Camaro.
The Kannapolis, N.C., native outpaced second-place Christopher Bell by nearly two tenths of a second.
“That second run, I probably asked for something I didn’t quite need, but the last time out there felt really good,” said Hemric. “Ripping the top coming to the green was cool and I felt it would be pretty fast. It’s good to have a fast race car; the guys at RCR and ECR have been doing a great job to bring fast cars to the race track every week and we’ve got one here today, for sure.
“I had a fun time and this is definitely the best car I’ve ever had in a national series (race),” he added. “This is probably my least-confident race track in the entire playoff schedule, so to come here and do what we’ve done already is something I’m really proud of. We’re ready to make the most of this today.”
Hemric’s effort on Saturday was his fifth-career pole, fourth of the season and second in a row.
Bell will start alongside Hemric after a final-round run of 29.543 seconds (182.784 mph) with his No. 20 Rheem Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. The Norman, Okla., young gun is a six-time winner this season as a rookie and enters the round of eight as the top-seeded playoff contender.
Justin Allgaier timed in third-fastest (29.601/182.426) in a JR Motorsports Chevrolet, followed by Austin Cindric’s Team Penske Ford to put four different organizations in the first two rows of the grid.
Brandon Jones’ Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota completed the top five. Tyler Reddick, Ryan Preece, Shane Lee, Matt Tifft, Cole Custer, Elliott Sadler and Chase Briscoe filled out the front six rows and all advanced through to the final round of qualifying.
John Hunter Nemechek was the first driver who failed to make the final round of qualifying, bumped out of the top 12 by Tifft in the last 45 seconds of round two.
As such, Nemechek will roll off 13th after turning a lap of 29.690 seconds (181.879 mph) in the No. 42 Fire Alarm Services Chevrolet for Chip Ganassi Racing. He missed the transfer by .01 of a second.
The effort was still positive for Nemechek, who nearly didn’t get to turn a lap at all due to inspection issues before the opening round of qualifying. However, a fortuitous caution with a minute and five seconds remaining allowed Nemechek, Ryan Truex, Ryan Reed and others to advance onward.
Truex ended up 14th and Reed will start 16th.
With 43 cars on the property for only 40 starting spots, Bayley Currey, Morgan Shepherd and Max Tullman failed to make the grid for the 31st race of the season.
The Kansas Lottery kicks off at 3 p.m. ET, with live coverage on NBC, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
To view the full starting grid, advance to the next page.
