{"id":44948,"date":"2024-03-22T20:05:43","date_gmt":"2024-03-23T01:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=44948"},"modified":"2024-03-23T06:57:11","modified_gmt":"2024-03-23T11:57:11","slug":"larson-powers-to-pole-for-saturdays-focused-health-250-zilisch-sets-track-record-in-truck-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/22\/larson-powers-to-pole-for-saturdays-focused-health-250-zilisch-sets-track-record-in-truck-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"Larson powers to pole for Saturday’s Focused Health 250; Zilisch sets track record in Truck debut"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson won the pole Friday for Saturday’s Focused Health 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas. Photo Credit: NASCAR at COTA\/Harold Hinson Photography<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Courtesy of NASCAR at COTA<\/em><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2013 NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) champion Kyle Larson\u2019s hopes of a Texas two-step at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) this weekend \u2013 with wins in both the Focused Health 250 and the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix \u2013 got off to a strong start as the Elk Grove, Calif. native powered his No. 17 machine to the pole for Saturday\u2019s NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) showdown.<\/p>\n

Larson\u2019s qualifying lap of 132.076 seconds at 92.946 mph was enough to hold off hard-charging rookie Shane van Gisbergen, who will start on the front row alongside the veteran. Larson, van Gisbergen, Ty Gibbs, Chandler Smith and AJ Allmendinger were the top five in Focused Health 250 qualifying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ve gotten the pole every time I\u2019ve run the (No.) 17 car,\u201d Larson said following qualifying. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t translated to a win yet. I\u2019m still trying to get a grasp of things. It\u2019s going to be tough. SVG (van Gisbergen), he\u2019s still got a lot to learn about the car and he\u2019s already second quick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larson, who\u2019s racing in his first NXS road course race since Sonoma last summer, said the limited practice time makes adjusting to the Xfinity car a fun challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty minutes is not a long time,\u201d he said. \u201cYou get five or six laps in practice and then go qualifying. It\u2019s going to be tough. There\u2019s going to be lots of slipping and sliding. It\u2019s going to be tough to keep it going straight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Focused Health 250 is set to go green at 4:19 p.m. CT Saturday.<\/p>\n

Zilisch Expels Doubts, Earns XPEL 225 Pole in Truck Series Debut<\/strong><\/p>\n

Forget the third time. For Connor Zilisch, the first time was the charm as the 17-year-old racer earned the pole for Saturday\u2019s XPEL 225 in his NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS) debut at COTA on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m kind of blown away,\u201d Zilisch said. \u201cI hand it all off to Spire Motorsports and the truck that they brought. It made my job really easy. Honestly, I feel like I could have driven that at 95 percent and still gotten the pole. I might have over-drove it a little bit, but I know where I can improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zilisch\u2019s lap of 131.983 seconds at 93.012 mph was 0.714 seconds faster than outside-pole-sitter Corey Heim. Taylor Gray, Nick Sanchez and NCS regular Ross Chastain will round out the top five when the green flag falls Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Despite earning the pole in his first attempt behind the wheel in any of NASCAR\u2019s top three series, the Spire Motorsports rising star said he knows racing these cars is anything but simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 100 percent surprised myself today, yeah,\u201d Zilisch said. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely not easy. I\u2019ve run so many different kinds of cars. I think that\u2019s helped me. It\u2019s been a three-month process preparing for this race. We\u2019ve had this one circled on the calendar for a long time. It feels really good to start this strong, but we\u2019ve got a long way to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never run a truck race before. Everything\u2019s going to be new to me \u2013 the fall off, pit road. I\u2019ve got a lot to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

With an entire NXS field chasing him up the hill to COTA\u2019s treacherous Turn 1, he\u2019ll have to learn quick. Green flag for Saturday\u2019s XPEL 225 is scheduled for 12:43 p.m. CT.<\/p>\n

Tickets:<\/p>\n

Fans can purchase tickets and camping for the 2024 NASCAR at COTA weekend by visiting NASCARatCOTA.com.<\/p>\n

Follow Us:<\/p>\n

Keep track of all things NASCAR at COTA by following on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (@NASCARatCOTA). Keep up with all the latest information on the NASCAR at COTA website and mobile app.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Courtesy of NASCAR at COTA AUSTIN, Texas \u2013 NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) champion Kyle Larson\u2019s hopes of a Texas two-step at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) this weekend \u2013 with wins in both the Focused Health 250 and the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix \u2013 got off to a strong start as the Elk Grove, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":44965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[38,11],"tags":[39,905,225,16,882,181],"class_list":["post-44948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-circuit-of-the-americas","category-nascar","tag-circuit-of-the-americas","tag-connor-zilisch","tag-kyle-larson","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-craftsmen-truck-series","tag-nascar-xfinity-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/kl.jpg?fit=640%2C280&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-bGY","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44948"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44967,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44948\/revisions\/44967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}