Darrell Wallace Jr. Wins Second Career Pole at Dover

Darrell Wallace Jr. has won two poles in his young NASCAR XFINITY Series career. Both of the poles have come at Dover International Speedway.

“I’m still shaking, my heart is beating,” said Wallace in disbelief of winning the pole. “When you start it up you hold your breath and then to go lay down a lap is just special. This is cool. It feels good to start on the front row at Dover. I wouldn’t want to be with another group of guys that carry this much to the race track each and every week.”

Wallace is coming off of a career-best finish of fifth last weekend at Charlotte. He currently sits fourth in the series standings, just 30 points behind teammate Chris Buescher.

Buscher qualified alongside his Roush Fenway Racing teammate to round out the front row. Buescher was quickest in the first round of qualifying. In the second round he fell to fourth, but in the most important round he wound up second.

“That’s pretty cool to be on the front row here,” Buescher said to the FOX Sports broadcast. ‘We’ve got some fast Ford Mustangs and its going to be an exciting race. We have a car that I believe will perform better than the one I had last fall.”

Buescher finished fourth in the fall race at Dover in 2014.

The Roush Fenway Mustangs have been quick all weekend. But right behind them is the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas and the Richard Childress Racing Chevrolets.

Sprint Cup Series regular Matt Kenseth will begin Saturday’s race from the third position. Following him is his rookie teammate Daniel Suarez. And rounding out the top-five is Brian Scott.  

The first driver outside of the aforementioned Roush, Gibbs, and Childress teams is Kasey Kahne, who will start seventh in a rare appearance behind the No. 88 for JR Motorsports.

“I was really happy with it,” Kahne said following his run in qualifying. “I was sliding around a little bit but I was able to carry pretty good speed through the corners.”

Kahne is looking for his first win in the XFINITY Series since last July in Daytona.

Big name drivers such as Elliot Sadler and last year’s NASCAR XFINITY Series champion Chase Elliott failed to make it to the final round of qualifying. Sadler will start 13th, while Elliott will line-up from the 14th position.

“I just didn’t do a good job driving, I don’t think,” Elliott said out of frustration. “I need to step up my end and if I can do that then I think we’ll have a shot. I was just not going fast enough it’s as simple as that. I’ll try to do my job better for m guys, they deserve it.”

There were 40 cars for 40 positions, so every team made the race.

                                                                                          

Dustin Albino