Brandon Jones has reached a milestone for Toyota Racing USA in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series; winning the manufacturer’s 200th pole in the second-tier division.
The Atlanta, Georgia-native piloted the No. 20 Ortho / Menards Toyota GR Supra to the pole on Saturday, getting around the 2.5-mile triangle-shaped racetrack in 54.686 seconds (164.576mph).
“We’ve been chasing that 200th pole for Toyota as a company for a while now. Thanks to Ortho and thanks to Menards for being involved this weekend. A couple of people came by and said I’m picking you for the pole,” said Brandon Jones. “It was interesting. Justin’s lap was looking pretty good. We just must have had a really good tunnel turn. It’s interesting at this racetrack.”
It’s the 15th pole position for Jones in NASCAR’s second-tier division, and his 10th for Joe Gibbs Racing – which is tied fifth all-time under the Toyota Racing USA banner with NASCAR Cup Series legend Denny Hamlin.
“It’s so hard to judge how good the lap is going to be. We all predicted the track to be a little different than it was in practice. It took us for a little bit of a spin, I think. It was a lot slower than we predicted, so it was hard to adjust for, but all-in-all a really nice to get us here. Track position is big, so excited to be controlling the race. Hopefully we can get out here and control the race and get this first stage.”
Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) swept the front row in qualifying for the MillerTech Battery 250 at Pocono, with Taylor Gray, driving the No. 54 Operation 300 Toyota GR Supra, qualifying in the second position.
William Byron, Justin Allgaier, Sammy Smith, and Carson Kvapil qualified third through sixth at Pocono Raceway, with Sam Mayer behind them in seventh. Brent Crews, Ryan Sieg, and William Sawalich completed the top-10.
Other notables starting outside the top-10 for Saturday’s event include Corey Day (11th), Connor Zilisch (14th), Austin Hill (17th), Jesse Love (21st), and Rajah Caruth (26th).
Nathan Byrd, Blaine Perkins, and Dexter Bean all suffered issues in time trials on Saturday, while Dean Thompson, Cole Custer, Josh Bilicki, and Joey Gase failed to post a lap time.
The MillerTech Battery 250 at Pocono will take place Saturday at 4:00 PM ET on The CW.
