Brad Keselowski, Daniel Hemric on poles for Phoenix

Brad Keselowski and Daniel Hemric finished one spot short in last weekend’s NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but NASCAR’s qualifying metric have blessed them with pole position for the upcoming weekend’s Instacart 500 and Call 811 Before You Dig 200 at Phoenix Raceway.

Cup: Invert of Vegas top two with Keselowski on Instacart 500 pole

Kyle Larson dominated the Cup race at Las Vegas en route to his first win as a Hendrick Motorsports driver. However, he will not start on the pole as Keselowski’s points standing (second to Larson’s third) and fastest lap of the race (also second to third) trump his.

Although poles set by qualifying formula are not officially counted in the record books, it is Keselowski’s first time starting on the front row in 2021. It is also his third career front-row start at Phoenix and first since 2014, when he qualified on pole and second in the track’s two races. He has never won at Phoenix but finished second in 2018 and 2020, the latter of which resulted in a runner-up championship finish to Larson’s team-mate Chase Elliott. While winless at Phoenix in the Cup Series, he has two Xfinity victories there.

Larson starts second at Phoenix for the third time in his Cup career, while his best finish is second in 2017.

Two driver changes from Vegas have occurred, both involving Rick Ware Racing: J.J. Yeley replaces Garrett Smithley in the #53 and will start thirty-fourth at his home track, while James Davison returns to the #15 in Joey Gase‘s place and starts last in thirty-eighth. Yeley will run his first Cup race of the season on Sunday, while Davison prepares for his third.

Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford
2	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
3	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
4	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
5	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
6	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
7	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
8	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford
9	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford
10	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
11	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet
12	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet
13	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
14	43	Erik Jones	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet
15	37	Ryan Preece	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet
16	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford
17	17	Chris Buescher	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford
18	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford
19	6	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford
20	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford
21	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
22	42	Ross Chastain	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet
23	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
24	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Chevrolet
25	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota
26	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford
27	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet
28	38	Anthony Alfredo	Front Row Motorsports	Ford
29	77	Justin Haley*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet
30	78	B.J. McLeod*	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford
31	51	Cody Ware*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet
32	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford
33	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet
34	53	J.J. Yeley	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet
35	00	Quin Houff	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet
36	52	Josh Bilicki	Rick Ware Racing	Ford
37	66	Timmy Hill*	MBM Motorsports	Toyota
38	15	James Davison	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet

Xfinity: Joe Gibbs front row with Hemric leading the way for Call 811 200

It will be a Joe Gibbs Racing front row for Saturday’s race as Hemric is joined by Brandon Jones on the front row.

Victory Lane continued to slip out of Hemric’s reach when he finished second to A.J. Allmendinger at Las Vegas; it was Hemric’s eighth runner-up finish as an Xfinity driver and tenth in NASCAR’s national series when one includes his two such finishes in the Camping World Truck Series (he also finished second in his lone start in what is now the ARCA Menards Series West in 2019). Phoenix will mark Hemric’s first race in which he starts first since the fall Kansas race in 2018.

Allmendinger starts fourth alongside points leader Austin Cindric, while his Kaulig Racing team-mates Justin Haley and Jeb Burton are a row behind him. Hemric and Jones’ JGR team-mate Harrison Burton will start seventh.

The fourth JGR car, the #54, is one of four cars with different drivers from last week as Ty Gibbs takes over for Ty Dillon; Gibbs enters the race hoping to win his second Xfinity race in as many starts, but has an uphill battle as he starts twenty-seventh. Starting beside him is Blaine Perkins in the #23 for Our Motorsports that Tyler Reddick piloted in Vegas; Perkins is making his Xfinity début. Further down the running order, Yeley once again replaces Smithley as he will drive Ware’s #17, while David Starr moves from MBM Motorsports‘ #13 to the #61 in Chad Finchum‘s place. The #13 will be driven by 2019 Whelen Euro Series champion Loris Hezemans in his first Xfinity race since that year, while the car will be fielded in a partnership between MBM and Reaume Brothers Racing (who previously fielded the #23 before Our assumed its operational duties) for the first time.

For the fourth straight week, Jordan Anderson, Our Motorsports‘ #03 (with Andy Lally entered for the second time), and Bassett Racing‘s #77 (Dillon Bassett for the second time) are excluded from the field.

Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	18	Daniel Hemric	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
2	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
3	22	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford
4	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet
5	11	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet
6	10	Jeb Burton	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet
7	20	Harrison Burton	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
8	1	Michael Annett	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet
9	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet
10	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet
11	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet
12	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet
13	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet
14	26	Santino Ferrucci	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota
15	44	Tommy Joe Martins	Martins Motorsports	Chevrolet
16	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet
17	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet
18	4	Landon Cassill	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet
19	2	Myatt Snider	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
20	02	Brett Moffitt*	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet
21	0	Jeffrey Earnhardt	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet
22	90	Dexter Bean	DGM Racing	Chevrolet
23	78	Jesse Little	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Toyota
24	15	Colby Howard	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet
25	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet
26	47	Kyle Weatherman	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet
27	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
28	23	Blaine Perkins	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet
29	74	Bayley Currey	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet
30	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford
31	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford
32	48	Jade Buford	Big Machine Racing	Chevrolet
33	17	J.J. Yeley	Rick Ware Racing	Ford
34	52	Gray Gaulding	Jimmy Means Racing	Chevrolet
35	99	Stefan Parsons	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Toyota
36	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet
37	61	David Starr	MBM Motorsports	Toyota
38	5	Matt Mills	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Toyota
39	66	Timmy Hill	MBM Motorsports	Toyota
40	13	Loris Hezemans	MBM Motorsports	Toyota