LINCOLN, Ala. — Jesse Love earned Richard Childress Racing its seventh consecutive pole at Talladega Superspeedway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Getty Images/NASCAR Media
Love himself now has three poles in a row after dominating qualifying for Saturday’s race. He ran nearly two tenths of a second faster in round one and won the pole by nearly a tenth. He earned the pole with a time of 52.605 seconds, outdoing William Sawalich’s 52.702-second effort.
TOP 10 STARTERS: Jesse Love, William Sawalich, Christian Eckes, Carson Kvapil, Austin Hill, Jeb Burton, Connor Zilisch, Justin Allgaier, Aric Almirola, Brandon Jones.
Not including 2020 and 2021, when qualifying didn’t take place at Talladega due to the pandemic, RCR hasn’t been beat for an Xfinity pole at Talladega since 2019. Jeffrey Earnhardt started the streak in April 2022. Then, Austin Hill won three in a row and Love carried it on with his own three-peat of poles.
RCR and its affiliates also haven’t been shut out of the front row since 2016.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega goes green Saturday at 4 p.m. ET. Catch it on The CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Every playoff driver will start in the top 16. Here’s the full lineup:
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick’s final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen’s stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers’ stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com