Brandon Jones secured the final pole position of the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season for this year’s championship race and season-finale event at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, November 1.
The event’s qualifying format consisted of a single-car, impound format, with each competitor cycling once around Phoenix in a bid to record the fastest time.
During the qualifying session, Jones, the eighth-fastest competitor during Friday’s lone practice session, posted a qualifying lap at 130.957 mph in 27.490 seconds. Jones’ lap was enough for the 28-year-old native from Atlanta, Georgia, to claim the top-starting spot for himself and his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) Toyota Supra team.
With the pole, Jones, who has won twice this season (Darlington Raceway in April and Kansas Speedway in September), notched his second Xfinity Series pole position of the 2025 season and his first at Phoenix and the 14th of his career. Despite being one of four competitors who were eliminated from the Playoffs last weekend and missing the Championship 4 cutline, Jones remains optimistic that he can contend for a victory at a track he once won at in 2020 to cap off a season where he reunited with JGR for the first time in three years.
“We’re certainly as fast as Xfinity mobile today,” Jones said. “I’m so excited to have speed at this last race. We all 100% believe in this No. 20 group that we felt like we should have been in that Final Four. [A] Couple of bad races in that Round of 8 just took us out of contention. We had a lot of momentum after that third place in Martinsville and almost having a shot to make it in on a win.
“We know how much speed I’ve had at this racetrack [Phoenix] as well, so we had high hopes coming into it,” Jones added. I’m hoping I’m the [championship] spoiler today. We’re still fighting for fifth in points, which is a big deal for us. We just need to put [the race] all together, have a great day, execute and hopefully, stand in Victory Lane smiling and thinking that we would have been the ones winning the championship. All in all, these [No. 20] guys did a phenomenal job. I’m excited to go into the race this afternoon.”
Jones will share the front row with teammate Taylor Gray, the latter of whom posted his lap at 130.468 mph in 27.593 seconds and scored his first Xfinity career victory at Martinsville Speedway. Sheldon Creed will line up in third place with a qualifying lap of 130.251 mph in 27.639 seconds.
Meanwhile, rookie Connor Zilisch is the highest-starting Championship 4 finalist and will take the green flag in fourth place. Zilisch, a 10-time race winner in 2025 and a first-time Championship 4 finalist, posted his lap at 130.227 mph in 27.644 seconds. Notably, bBefore qualifying, Zilisch was the fastest competitor during Friday’s practice session.
Justin Allgaier, Zilisch’s Xfinity teammate at JR Motorsports and another Championship 4 finalist, will start in fifth place. He posted the identical lap time and speed as Zilisch. Allgaier is also the reigning Xfinity Series champion and will attempt to become the eighth competitor overall to win back-to-back series titles during the main event later on Saturday.
Jesse Love, a third Championship 4 finalist in the Xfinity Series, won this year’s season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway while driving for Richard Childress Racing (RCR). He will start in sixth place with a lap of 130.194 mph in 27.651 seconds. Lastly, Carson Kvapil, an Xfinity rookie driving for JR Motorsports, will start in 14th place after a qualifying lap of 129.301 mph in 27.842 seconds. Like Zilisch and Love, Kvapil is a first-time Championship 4 finalist.
Notably, Aric Almirola and Austin Hill, both of whom are contending for the owner’s championship for JGR’s No. 19 Toyota team and RCR’s No. 21 Chevrolet team, qualified seventh and 16th, respectively. In addition, Ryan Sieg, who is piloting the No. 41 Haas Factory Team Ford Mustang entry in place of the suspended Sam Mayer. He qualified in 10th place and he will start behind Nick Sanchez and Dean Thompson.
With 38 competitors vying for 38 starting spots, all of the entered competitors made the event.
Qualifying Results:
1. Brandon Jones, 130.957 mph, 27.490 seconds
2. Taylor Gray, 130.468 mph, 27.593 seconds
3. Sheldon Creed, 130.251 mph, 27.639 seconds
4. Connor Zilisch, 130.227 mph, 27.644 seconds
5. Justin Allgaier, 130.227 mph, 27.644 seconds
6. Jesse Love, 130.194 mph, 27.651 seconds
7. Aric Almirola, 130.016 mph, 27.689 seconds
8. Nick Sanchez, 129.730 mph, 27.750 seconds
9. Dean Thompson, 129.515 mph, 27.796 seconds
10. Ryan Sieg, 129.487 mph, 27.802 seconds
11. Jeb Burton, 129.417 mph, 27.817 seconds
12. Harrison Burton, 129.357 mph, 27.830 seconds
13. Justin Bonsignore, 129.338 mph, 27.834 seconds
14. Carson Kvapil, 129.301 mph, 27.842 seconds
15. Corey Day, 129.255 mph, 27.852 seconds
16. Austin Hill, 129.250 mph, 27.853 seconds
17. Kyle Sieg, 129.227 mph, 27.858 seconds
18. Sammy Smith, 129.055 mph, 27.895 seconds
19. Parker Retzlaff, 128.935 mph, 27.921 seconds
20. Brenden Queen, 128.801 mph, 27.950 seconds
21. Christian Eckes, 128.438 mph, 28.029 seconds
22. Connor Mosack, 128.315 mph, 28.056 seconds
23. Blaine Perkins, 128.155 mph, 28.091 seconds
24. Brennan Poole, 128.023 mph, 28.120 seconds
25. Leland Honeyman, 127.669 mph, 28.198 seconds
26. Josh Bilicki, 127.596 mph, 28.214 seconds
27. Anthony Alfredo, 127.380 mph, 28.262 seconds
28. Nick Leitz, 127.312 mph, 28.277 seconds
29. Jeremy Clements, 127.146 mph, 28.314 seconds
30. Ryan Ellis, 127.096 mph, 28.325 seconds
31. Patrick Emerling, 126.850 mph, 28.380 seconds
32. Garrett Smithley, 126.725 mph, 28.408 seconds
33. Daniel Dye, 126.671 mph, 28.420 seconds
34. Stefan Parsons, 126.298 mph, 28.504 seconds
35. Glen Reen, 125.769 mph, 28.624 seconds
36. Joey Gase, 125.716 mph, 28.636 seconds
37. Josh Williams, 124.883 mph, 28.827 seconds
38. Dawson Cram, 124.284 mph, 28.966 seconds
*Bold indicates Championship 4 contenders
The 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway is scheduled to occur on Saturday, November 1, at 7:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network, MRN and SiriusXM.
