JR Motorsports dominant in Charlotte Roval practice and qualifying
CONCORD, N.C. — If someone is going to win Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the Charlotte Roval, they’ll have to beat JR Motorsports driver to do it.
JRM’s drivers swept the top-five starting positions with Connor Zilisch, Justin Allgaier, Connor Mosack, Sammy Smith and Carson Kvapil.
Zilisch won the pole with a hot lap of 85.054 seconds — just under half a second quicker than Allgaier.
Also in the 85-second range were Mosack (85.797) and Smith (85.973). The first two in the 86-second range were Smith (86.047) and Corey Day, who paced the Roval in 86.26 seconds for sister team Hendrick Motorsports.
Sam Mayer (86.375) and Jesse Love (86.390) were the top two non-JRM playoff drivers in qualifying. They’ll start seventh and eighth, respectively.
Kaz Grala and Austin Green impressed in qualifying and will start ninth (86.412) and 10th (86.472) respectively. Green was also seventh-fastest in practice.
Ahead of Green in practice was more JRM domination. Zilisch, Kvapil, Mosack, Allgaier and Smith were first, second, third, fifth and sixth on the charts. Only Love got in between them — posting the fourth-fastest time in practice.
Through the Field
Four drivers failed to make the race: Garrett Smithley, Thomas Annunziata, Austin J. Hill, Andrew Patterson.
In contrast, Brennan Poole had a great qualifying effort — qualifying 12th and matching his best start of 2025 in Alpha Prime Racing’s No. 44 Chevrolet.
Through 28 of 33 races, Poole has two top-five finishes, five top-10 finishes and an average finish of 18.3 — compared to one top-five, two top-10s and an average finish of 20.0 all of last season.
Poole will start ahead of six playoff drivers, including five who aren’t locked into the next round: Sheldon Creed (13th), Nick Sanchez (14th), Austin Hill (16th), Taylor Gray (17th), Harrison Burton (28th).
NASCAR Xfinity Series playoff standings
- Brandon Jones WIN
- Connor Zilisch 2165 (+105)
- Justin Allgaier 2128 (+68)
- Sam Mayer 2103 (+43)
- Taylor Gray 2076 (+16)
- Sheldon Creed 2072 (+12)
- Carson Kvapil 2069 (+9)
- Jesse Love 2065 (+5)
- Nick Sanchez 2060 (-5)
- Austin Hill 2058 (-7)
- Harrison Burton 2057 (-8)
- Sammy Smith 2051 (-14)
bold denotes locked into Round of 8
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
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