Jesse Love picked up right where he left off from his victorious weekend at Daytona International Speedway by winning the pole position for the Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday, February 21.
The event’s starting lineup was determined through two qualifying rounds. Each round was comprised of a single-lap session for each of the entered competitors. After the first qualifying round, the top 10 fastest qualifiers transferred to the final single-lap round and contended for the pole position.
During the first qualifying session, Love, driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing (RCR) Chevrolet entry, posted the fastest lap over his fellow competitors at 174.241 mph in 31.818 seconds. He was among 10 competitors who transferred to the final qualifying round. Once in the final round, the Menlo Park, California, native saved his best performance for last as he posted a pole-winning lap at 174.724 mph in 31.730 seconds, which was enough to snatch his first Xfinity pole position of the 2025 season over teammate Austin Hill.
Overall, Love notched his sixth NASCAR Xfinity Series career pole and his fifth on a superspeedway venue. The pole was also Love’s third in a row at Atlanta after he swept both qualifying sessions at the track during the 2024 season.
With the pole, Love, winner of last weekend’s season-opening event at Daytona, will attempt to mirror teammate Austin Hill’s accomplishment from the previous season by winning the first two events on a schedule. He will also strive for redemption in the spring Atlanta event after he led a race-high 157 of 169 over-scheduled laps a year ago but drifted back to 12th place due to running out of fuel at the start of an overtime attempt.
“I feel like whenever we come to these [superspeedway] places, I don’t want to say it’s a given because when you start expecting things, then you start to get your feelings hurt, but these [No. 2] guys just do such a great job,” Love said on the CW Network. “Just proud of this whole [crew chief] Danny Stockman No. 2-led crew. Looking forward to going to tomorrow, going to work with my spotter Brandon Benesch, and see if we can just stay out front, control the race. I have a game plan for when we do lose track position because I’m sure at some point, that’ll happen.”
Speaking of Hill, the latter made it an RCR front-row sweep as he claimed the second-place starting spot with a qualifying lap of 174.378 mph in 31.793 seconds. Hill, a native of Winston, Georgia, is a four-time Xfinity race winner at Atlanta and is coming off a season where he won both events at his home track. Having also won four of the previous five Xfinity events at Atlanta, Hill will attempt to notch his sixth overall victory and third in a row in front of his home crowd.
Josh Williams, who briefly held the top starting spot prior to the RCR duo of Love and Hill, will start in third place with a qualifying lap of 174.378 mph in 31.793 seconds. The result will mark the first time that Williams will start an Xfinity event in the top three. His previous best starting spot was seventh, which occurred at Dover Motor Speedway in 2023.
Justin Allgaier, the reigning Xfinity Series champion, and Sam Mayer will start in the top five. Rookie Taylor Gray and teammate Brandon Jones qualified sixth and seventh, respectively, while rookies Carson Kvapil, Christian Eckes and Connor Zilisch completed the top-10 starting grid.
Notably, the following names that included rookie William Sawalich, Sammy Smith, rookie Daniel Dye, Ryan Sieg and rookie Nick Sanchez qualified in the top 15, respectively, while Sheldon Creed, Harrison Burton, Jeb Burton and rookie Dean Thompson will start 17th, 19th, 20th and 22nd, respectively. In addition, Aric Almirola, who is making his first of nine scheduled starts of the 2025 season in the No. 19 Toyota entry for Joe Gibbs Racing, will line up in 16th place.
With 38 competitors vying for 38 starting spots, all of the entered competitors qualified for the event.
Qualifying position, best speed, best time:
1. Jesse Love, 174.724 mph, 31.730 seconds.
2. Austin Hill, 174.378 mph, 31.793 seconds
3. Josh Williams, 173.684 mph, 31.920 seconds
4. Justin Allgaier, 173.652 mph, 31.926 seconds
5. Sam Mayer, 173.619 mph, 31.932 seconds
6. Taylor Gray, 173.494 mph, 31.955 seconds
7. Brandon Jones, 173.467 mph, 31.960 seconds
8. Carson Kvapil, 173.451 mph, 31.963 seconds
9. Christian Eckes, 173.190 mph, 32.011 seconds
10. Connor Zilisch, 173.099 mph, 32.028 seconds
11. William Sawalich, 172.877 mph, 32.069 seconds
12. Sammy Smith, 172.845 mph, 32.075 seconds
13. Daniel Dye, 172.813 mph, 32.081 seconds
14. Ryan Sieg, 172.775 mph, 32.088 seconds
15. Nick Sanchez, 172.490 mph, 32.141 seconds
16. Aric Almirola, 172.388 mph, 32.160 seconds
17. Sheldon Creed, 172.243 mph, 32.187 seconds
18. Anthony Alfredo, 171.870 mph, 32.257 seconds
19. Harrison Burton, 171.779 mph, 32.274 seconds
20. Jeb Burton, 171.699 mph, 32.289 seconds
21. CJ McLaughlin, 171.508 mph, 32.325 seconds
22. Dean Thompson, 171.085 mph, 32.405 seconds
23. Parker Retzlaff, 171.037 mph, 32.414 seconds
24. Jeremy Clements, 170.516 mph, 32.513 seconds
25. Blaine Perkins, 170.281 mph, 32.558 seconds
26. Ryan Ellis, 170.275 mph, 32.559 seconds
27. Kyle Sieg, 170.275 mph, 32.559 seconds
28. Kris Wright, 169.962 mph, 32.619 seconds
29. Leland Honeyman, 169.874 mph, 32.636 seconds
30. Matt DiBenedetto, 169.365 mph, 32.734 seconds
31. Brennan Poole, 169.241 mph, 32.758 seconds
32. Josh Bilicki, 168.819 mph, 32.840 seconds
33. Garrett Smithley, 168.546 mph, 32.893 seconds
34. Nick Leitz, 168.521 mph, 32.898 seconds
35. Carson Ware, 168.429 mph, 32.916 seconds
36. Mason Massey, 167.858 mph, 33.028 seconds
37. Mason Maggio, 167.295 mph, 33.139 seconds
38. Joey Gase, 166.902 mph, 33.217 seconds
The 2025 Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway is set to occur on Saturday, February 22, and air at 5 p.m. ET on the CW Network.
