Alex Tagliani wins Xfinity Series pole at Road America

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:

Preliminary Xfinity entry list for Road America

Forty-one cars are entered for Saturday’s Road America 180 Fired Up by Johnsonville Xfinity race at Road America.

Michael McDowell is the only Sprint Cup driver doing double-duty between Michigan and Road America this weekend. Justin Marks, who won in the rain at Mid-Ohio two weeks ago, is entered. Team Penske will have Alex Tagliani in the No. 22 car.

NASCAR official states why there isn’t SAFER barrier along Dover’s outside frontstretch wall

A NASCAR executive explained Monday why there was no SAFER barrier along the outside frontstretch wall at Dover International Speedway after multiple cars struck the concrete wall this past weekend.

Jamie McMurray and Tony Stewart each slammed into an unprotected concrete wall off Turn 4 after they ran through oil from Danica Patrick’s car during Friday’s Sprint Cup practice. Justin Marks hit the outside wall during his Xfinity heat race Saturday.

McMurray, who was sore from his hit, said it was “unacceptable” the outside wall at Dover did not have a SAFER barrier. He was not alone in speaking out. Patrick and Kevin Harvick each called for the SAFER barrier to be added in that location at Dover.

Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio why there wasn’t a SAFER barrier along the frontstretch wall.

“When we looked at SAFER barriers all being in place for this racing season, the plan had always been at both Dover and Indianapolis on the frontstretch wall to not have that covered,’’ O’Donnell said. “There was some logistics and reasoning behind that in terms of really narrowing the frontstretch lane. SAFER barriers were potentially going to dump some of the cars back out into the frontstretch and have the potential of a T-bone of a driver and then there were some challenges in going into Turn 1.

“Obviously after we went through this weekend, we’ve got to look at what tweaks we can make and be able to install those and maybe look at how the frontstretch could work those in. It wasn’t something that the track or anyone said, ‘Hey we’re not going to do this,’ there was some reasoning behind it. Obviously, after what happened all throughout the weekend, that’s something that we’ve got to address and we’ll do that and very confident the track will work with us as well.’’

NASCAR and tracks have made a concentrated effort to add SAFER barriers after Kyle Busch was injured in an Xfinity race at Daytona International Speedway at the beginning of last season when he struck an unprotected concrete wall. Dover added 479 feet of SAFER barrier before this weekend along the inside wall at the backstretch and inside Turn 3.