Harrison Burton notched his first NASCAR Xfinity Series career pole position for the IAA and Ritchie Bros. 250 at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday, October 25.
The event used a single-car, impound qualifying format, with each competitor taking two laps around Martinsville in a bid to record the fastest time.
During the qualifying round, Burton, who was the 26th-fastest competitor during practice earlier on Saturday, clocked in his fastest lap at 95.429 mph in 19.843 seconds. Burton’s lap was enough for him to claim the pole position over Playoff contender Carson Kvapil.
With the pole, Burton, who won at Martinsville in October 2020, will lead the field to the green flag during Saturday’s main event. It was his first career pole for what will be his 107th series start. Burton also joined Taylor Gray as first-time pole winners of the 2025 Xfinity Series season and delivered the first-ever pole for AM Racing.
The pole award occurred hours after Burton was announced to join forces with Sam Hunt Racing and pilot the No. 24 Toyota Supra entry for the 2026 Xfinity season.
“That’s huge,” Burton said. “We qualified fifth here earlier in the year and felt like we had a pretty good balance. Huge deal for us, right? A small team and showing a lot of fight through a lot of adversity. Great opportunity for us to now go lead this race, set the pace, take care of our tires. Go try and be as fast as Xfinity Mobile the whole run here.”
Burton will share the front row with Kvapil, the latter of whom clocked in his best qualifying lap at 95.405 mph in 19.848 seconds. Currently, Kvapil holds sole possession of the fourth and final berth to the Championship 4 round by 11 points entering tonight’s main event.
Aric Almirola, who won both Martinsville Xfinity events in 2024, will start in third place with his best qualifying lap occurring at 95.304 mph in 19.869 seconds. He will be followed by Championship 4 finalist Justin Allgaier and Playoff contender Sheldon Creed, respectively. Austin Hill, who won last weekend’s event at Talladega Superspeedway and this year’s spring Martinsville event in late March, will line up in sixth place.
Ryan Sieg, Brenden Queen, Christian Eckes and Parker Retzlaff completed the top-10 starting lineup.
Kvapil, Allgaier and Creed were the only Playoff contenders to qualify in the top 10. Four other Playoff contenders, including Brandon Jones, Sammy Smith, Jesse Love and Sam Mayer, will start 11th, 15th, 21st and 24th, respectively. Love is currently above the cutline to make the Championship 4 round by 40 points. Jones, Smith and Mayer join Creed as the bottom four competitors who are scored outside the cutline.
Notably, Connor Zilisch, a Championship 4 finalist, did not post a qualifying lap. During the event’s practice session, he wheel-hopped, spun and made contact with the outside wall entering Turn 1. With his team opting to make repairs to the entry, Zilisch will roll off the starting grid at the tail end of the 38-car field.
With 39 competitors vying for 38 starting spots, Preston Pardus was the lone competitor who did not qualify for the event.
Qualifying position, Best speed, Best time:
1. Harrison Burton, 95.429 mph, 19.843 seconds
2. Carson Kvapil, 95.405 mph, 19.848 seconds
3. Aric Almirola, 95.304 mph, 19.869 seconds
4. Justin Allgaier, 95.223 mph, 19.886 seconds
5. Sheldon Creed, 95.165 mph, 19.898 seconds
6. Austin Hill, 95.127 mph, 19.906 seconds
7. Ryan Sieg, 95.118 mph, 19.908 seconds
8. Brenden Queen, 95.046 mph, 19.923 seconds
9. Christian Eckes, 94.993 mph, 19.934 seconds
10. Parker Retzlaff, 94.860 ph, 19.962 seconds
11. Brandon Jones, 94.761 mph, 19.983 seconds
12. Jeb Burton, 94.761 mph, 19.983 seconds
13. Taylor Gray, 94.746 mph, 19.986 seconds
14. Justin Bonsignore, 94.642 mph, 20.008 seconds
15. Sammy Smith, 94.623 mph, 20.012 seconds
16. Brennan Poole, 94.623 mph, 20.012 seconds
17. Blaine Perkins, 94.557 mph, 20.026 seconds
18. Nick Sanchez, 94.359 mph, 20.068 seconds
19. Myatt Snider, 94.359 mph, 20.068 seconds
20. Thomas Annunziata, 94.322 mph, 20.076 seconds
21. Jesse Love, 94.153 mph, 20.112 seconds
22. Daniel Dye, 94.139 mph, 20.115 seconds
23. Corey Day, 94.129 mph, 20.117 seconds
24. Sam Mayer, 93.966 mph, 20.152 seconds
25. Ryan Ellis, 93.840 mph, 20.179 seconds
26. Connor Mosack, 93.733 mph, 20.202 seconds
27. Kyle Sieg, 93.599 mph, 20.231 seconds
28. Brad Perez, 93.553 mph, 20.241 seconds
29. Anthony Alfredo, 93.543 mph, 20.243 seconds
30. Dean Thompson, 93.410 mph, 20.272 seconds
31. Garrett Smithley, 93.129 mph, 20.333 seconds
32. Josh Williams, 92.783 mph, 20.409 seconds
33. Patrick Staropoli, 92.578 mph, 20.454 seconds
34. Mason Maggio, 92.569 mph, 20.456 seconds
35. Jeremy Clements, 92.511 mph, 20.469 seconds
36. Takuma Koga, 92.317 mph, 20.512 seconds
37. Austin Green, 92.110 mph, 20.558 seconds
38. Connor Zilisch, 0.000 mph, 0.000 seconds
*Bold indicates Playoff competitors.
The 2025 IAA and Ritchie Bros. 250 at Martinsville Speedway is scheduled to occur on Saturday, October 25, at 7:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network, MRN and SiriusXM.
