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Shane van Gisbergen wins Xfinity pole at Sonoma


Shane van Gisbergen will lead the Xfinity Series field to the green flag Saturday evening at Sonoma Raceway.

Van Gisbergen won the pole with a qualifying lap of 74.677 seconds and 95.933 mph. This is his first career pole in NASCAR. He has started on the front row of all three Xfinity Series races on road courses this season.

Ty Gibbs qualified second with a lap of 95.458 mph. Austin Hill (95.37 mph), AJ Allmendinger (95.04 mph), and Justin Allgaier (95.009 mph) all secured starting spots inside the top five.

MORE: Xfinity starting lineup

Jesse Love (94.939 mph), John Hunter Nemechek (94.751 mph), Sam Mayer (94.716 mph), Sheldon Creed (94.624 mph), and Sammy Smith (94.509 mph) will all start Saturday's race inside the top 10.

Van Gisbergen, who won his first career Xfinity race last weekend at Portland International Raceway, led Friday evening's practice session at the Northern California road course. He completed 15 laps during a 50-minute session and he posted a session-best lap of 75.290 seconds and 95.152 mph.

Parker Kligerman, who qualified 14th, was the second-fastest driver during practice. Gibbs, Allgaier, and Love were all top-five in practice speed during Friday's session.

Boris Said, who had to go to a backup car after a wreck in practice, qualified 35th. He will have to start from the rear of the field for Saturday evening's race. Josh Bilicki qualified 31st after going to a backup car due to a mechanical issue. He will also have to drop to the rear of the field.

Sage Karam did not qualify for the race in the No. 35 Joey Gase Motorsports Toyota. Karam said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the team had a carburetor issue.

The green flag for Saturday's Xfinity Series race will wave at 8:20 p.m. ET. Two-time WNBA champion Kelsey Plum will give the command to fire engines at 8:08 p.m. ET. FS1 will provide coverage for the road course race.