Jesse Love was awarded the pole position for the Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday, September 18.
The event’s starting lineup was initially going to be determined through an on-track qualifying session that consisted of a single-car, two-lap qualifying format. During the session, each of the 39 competitors vying for 38 starting spots would cycle around Bristol twice to post the fastest lap amongst one another. The competitor who posted the single fastest lap was awarded the pole position.
Friday’s qualifying session, however, was canceled due to inclement weather. As a result, the lineup was determined using a qualifying metric formula from the NASCAR rulebook. This resulted in Love being awarded the first-place starting spot as he is coming off a victory in the series’ recent event at World Wide Technology Raceway on September 12 and is currently ranked in fourth place in the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ Chase standings.
With the awarded pole, Love, who was the third-fastest competitor in practice earlier on Friday, will lead the field to the start of an O’Reilly event from first place for a third time this season. The reigning O’Reilly champion from Menlo Park, California, snapped a yearlong winless drought this past weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway. Despite trailing the points lead by 16 points, Love has seven Chase events remaining to make up his deficit and contend to defend his series’ title prior to this year’s finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November.
Love will share the front row with Sheldon Creed, a 2026 O’Reilly Chase contender who currently leads the standings and finished in the runner-up spot behind Love at World Wide Technology Raceway. Chasers Sam Mayer, Carson Kvapil and Taylor Gray will start in the top five, respectively. Brent Crews will be the highest non-Chase contender on the starting grid in sixth place while Chasers Parker Retzlaff, Sammy Smith, Justin Allgaier, Rajah Caruth and Brandon Jones will follows suit in the top 11, respectively. Notably, Austin Hill and Corey Day will be the two lowest-starting Chase contenders on the grid in 20th and 26th, respectively.
With 39 competitors vying for 38 starting spots, Landon S. Huffman was the lone competitor who did not make the main event.
Starting Lineup:
- Jesse Love
- Sheldon Creed
- Sam Mayer
- Carson Kvapil
- Taylor Gray
- Brent Crews
- Parker Retzlaff
- Sammy Smith
- Justin Allgaier
- Rajah Caruth
- Brandon Jones
- Dean Thompson
- Jeb Burton
- Ryan Sieg
- Kyle Sieg
- William Sawalich
- Brennan Poole
- Patrick Staropoli
- Anthony Alfredo
- Austin Hill
- Blaine Perkins
- Josh Williams
- Andrew Patterson
- Stefan Parsons
- Garrett Smithley
- Corey Day
- Ryan Ellis
- Josh Bilicki
- Jeremy Clements
- David Starr
- Logan Bearden
- Lavar Scott
- Nick Sanchez
- Harrison Burton
- Carson Ware
- Jake Finch
- Natalie Decker
- JJ Yeley
*Bold indicates Chase Drivers
The 2026 Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway is scheduled to occur on Friday, September 18, at 7:30 ET on the CW Network, PRN Radio and SiriusXM.
