Kyle Benjamin will start on the pole for the VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday. Benjamin, making his fifth career XFINITY Series start of the season, posted a 29.633, 182.229 mph. in the final round of knockout qualifying to capture his second career XFINITY Series pole.
Benjamin earned his first career pole back in June at Pocono Raceway. The South Carolina native went on to lead 28 of the 100 laps to score a 16th-place finish in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Through four starts in 2017, Benjamin holds one top five and one top 10 finish.
Ryan Preece, a teammate of Benjamin piloting the No. 20 Toyota, will start in the runner-up position on Saturday. The young driver from Connecticut enters the weekend with momentum after scoring the victory at Iowa Speedway his last time out.
Preece’s worst finish of the year came at New Hampshire Motor Speedway where he finished second. He led two laps on that particular July afternoon after starting from the sixth starting spot.
Cole Custer in the No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford will round out the top-three starters on Saturday. Custer posted a 29.694, 181.855 mph. in the final round of knockout qualifying and sat 0.061 seconds behind the pole winner.
Through 26 events in 2017, Custer holds four top five and 13 top 10 finishes.
Where will the Playoff drivers start:
POS |
CAR |
DRIVER |
3 |
00 |
Cole Custer |
4 |
7 |
Justin Allgaier |
6 |
1 |
Elliott Sadler |
7 |
21 |
Daniel Hemric |
8 |
48 |
Brennan Poole |
9 |
19 |
Matt Tifft |
12 |
9 |
William Byron |
13 |
16 |
Ryan Reed |
16 |
62 |
Brennan Gaughan |
17 |
11 |
Blake Koch |
18 |
5 |
Michael Annett |
25 |
51 |
Jeremy Clements |
A total of 40 drivers appeared on the VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 entry list. That means there were no DNQ’s after round one of qualifying.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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