Race Weekend Central

Jeffrey Earnhardt Earns 1st Xfinity Series Pole at Talladega in Larry McReynolds’ Return

An Earnhardt. A No. 3 car. A superspeedway. Larry Mac. Sound familiar?

Jeffrey Earnhardt scored his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series pole in his 136th start at Talladega Superspeedway for Saturday’s (April 23) Ag-Pro 300 with a speed of 182.56 mph in the final round of qualifying.

With a best finish of third at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2019, Earnhardt is still looking for his first career Xfinity Series win. He’ll have Larry McReynolds on top of the pit box, who’s back as a crew chief for the first time since 2000.

Earnhardt will be joined on the front row by RCR teammate Austin Hill. Hill has thrived at the superspeedways this season, winning the Xfinity season opener at Daytona International Speedway in February as a rookie.

Ty Gibbs will start third, missing out on his fourth consecutive pole in the Xfinity Series (that would’ve tied Austin Dillon’s 2013 record for the most consecutive poles). Gibbs was fastest in the first round of qualifying, but he had to settle for third in the final round.

The fourth fastest qualifier was Sheldon Creed, giving RCR three cars in the top four. Daniel Hemric qualified fifth and his Kaulig Racing teammate Landon Cassill starts alongside him in sixth.

Ryan Vargas qualified seventh, giving him the best starting spot in his Xfinity Series career. In his first race for Big Machine Racing’s No. 48, Kaz Grala qualified eighth.

Gibbs’ Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Drew Dollar will start ninth while Ryan Sieg rounded out the top 10 in RSS Racing’s No. 38 car.

See also
Eyes On Xfinity: Talladega Important to Kaz Grala, Chandler Smith & Jeffrey Earnhardt

With 38 starting spots and 41 entries, three drivers failed to qualify for Saturday’s race. Those three were Natalie Decker, CJ McLaughlin, and Jesse Iwuji.

2022 Ag-Pro 300 Full Qualifying Results

The Ag-Pro 300 will take place at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday, April 23 at 4:00 p.m. ET with TV coverage provided by FOX.

About the author

Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch, and his weekly columns include “Stat Sheet” and “4 Burning Questions.” Stephen also writes commentary, contributes weekly to the “Bringing the Heat” podcast and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage. A native of Texas, Stephen began following NASCAR at age 9 after attending his first race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Follow on Twitter @stephen_stumpf.

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3 Comments
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Echo

That’s amazing, Earnhardt and Larry Mac together in the #3 for the first time and to Nascars delight they win the pole. And Jeffreys RCR teammate Austin Hill is starting 2nd. What were the odds of this happening, amazing.

germancarsonly

I’m not so sure I’m buying this? This kind of reminds me of when Danica won the pole for the Daytona 500.

germancarsonly

After watching the finish I’m thinking Earnhardt on the pole was legit. The guy has just driven a bunch of marginal cars recently.

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