Alex Tagliani will start from the pole at Road America after a lap of 109.866 mph in Xfinity Series qualifying on Friday night. It was Tagliani’s fourth career pole in his eighth start.
Tagliani enters the Road America 180 looking for his first career NASCAR win. He will lead the field to the green flag alongside Michael McDowell, who qualified second at 109.591 mph. McDowell is driving the No. 2 for Richard Childress Racing.
Tagliani credited crew chief Greg Erwin with helping him achieve the pole lap.
“Greg did some fine-tuning changes just to make the car a little bit less tight, it was the right call,” Tagliani told NBCSN. “It’s a good day for the No. 22 Discount Tire team and a good day for the No. 22 as Joey (Logano) is on the pole in Michigan. It’s a good day for Team Penske.”
The top five were Tagliani, McDowell, Justin Marks (109.196 mph), Owen Kelly (109.129 mph), and Daniel Suarez (108.644 mph). Marks is the most recent road course winner, having captured his first career win two weeks ago at Mid-Ohio.
There were two incidents during qualifying, both in the first round, which brought out red flags.
Alon Day, making his second Xfinity Series start, went off track and was stuck in the gravel in Turn 12. Day did not complete a lap and will start 40th on Saturday afternoon.
The second red flag was for rookie Josh Bilicki. He spun and crashed into the tire barriers in Turn 1, resulting in heavy damage to the right side of the No. 77. Bilicki had clocked in 23rd fastest at 107.092 mph at the time of the accident.
Here is how qualifying played out:
