Connor Zilisch wins Martinsville pole award, full Xfinity Series starting lineup revealed

For the third time in his young career and first time on an oval, Connor Zilisch is on the pole for the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Not bad for a road course racer, huh? Zilisch put his JR Motorsports No. 88 on the front at historic Martinsville Speedway.

Carson Kvapil, Connor Zilisch’s teammate will join him on the outside of the front row. They will be just ahead of the two Richard Childress Racing drivers. Austin Hill and Jesse Love will be stalking the two JRM rookies to start this race on Saturday.

How quickly Zilisch has developed his talents on ovals is amazing. He didn’t have a single top-10 in five Truck Series oval starts. In the Xfinity Series, he has already had three top-10 finishes in just 10 races on ovals.

Kvapil almost won this Martinsville race in his debut last season. Are we going to get a repeat of COTA between the two teammates? The full Xfinity Series qualifying results and starting lineup is below.

“Last time I was here in the truck I qualified, I think 27th,” Zilisch told Kim Coon after winning the pole. “So, went from completely one end of the spectrum to the other, and really proud of this entire JR Motorsports team. We’ve had four fast cars at the track every week. Yeah, really excited to have this Carolina Carports Chevrolet up front for tomorrow. We were as fast as Xfinity Mobile in practice and pretty fast there in qualifying, too. So, hopefully, we can be good when it rubbers up in the race tomorrow.”

Connor Zilisch is exactly right. He did qualify P27 in the Truck Series last fall at Martinsville. He went on to drive up to P12 by the end of the race, though. Clearly, he has learned a lot since then.

Martinsville is seen as a track for veterans. Drivers who are new to the Paperclip generally struggle. Zilisch and Kvapil are trying to be the exceptions.

Connor Zilisch shows he’s no one-trick pony

Watch out for this kid, folks. When you hear the hype about Connor Zilisch, believe it. Known for his road course skills, Zilisch isn’t an older racer with a career of experience behind him in one specific type of racing.

This is not a Shane van Gisbergen situation. This is a do-it-all talent that has thankfully landed in NASCAR. There was a time when Zilisch was in the F1 pipeline, racing go-karts in Europe and beating the best over there.

Qualifying isn’t usually anything to get excited about. When it comes to Martinsville qualifying, it’s different. You have to get off the throttle and hug the inside of the turns. It’s strategic.

We will see how Connor Zilisch does with 250 laps of racing on Saturday. Right now, I’m looking forward to watching Zilisch and Kvapil go at it with Hill and Love right there behind them. Don’t forget about Aric Almirola, either. It’s going to be a fun US Marine Corps 250.