Sam Mayer and Haas Factory Team have figured out qualifying at EchoPark Speedway.
The Franklin, Wisconsin-native will lead the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series field to green in Saturday’s Focused Health 250 at the 1.54-mile superspeedway, after laying down the quickest time in the final round of time trials.
Laying down a lap time of 31.944 seconds (173.554mph), Mayer was able to outrun Carson Kvapil, the fastest driver in the first round of qualifying, by an insanely narrow margin of 0.034 seconds to secure his sixth pole in NASCAR’s second-tier series.
“These guys did a really good job executing throughout the week to get ready for this place; the car is fast, obviously, the Audibel Chevrolet is really good,” Mayer said. “Learned a lot from Round 1 to Round 2, and we were able to execute better in the second round.”
Two of Mayer’s six NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series pole positions have now come at EchoPark Speedway, after the driver of the No. 41 Audibel Chevrolet Camaro secured the pole position in February’s event at the superspeedway-adjacent racetrack.
Just like it unfolded in February, Carson Kvapil, still on the hunt for his first career pole in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, qualified second for Saturday’s 250-miler. Defending champion Jesse Love qualified in third place, with William Sawalich in fourth and Sammy Smith rounding out the top five.
Sheldon Creed, who captured his long-awaited first career victory in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series earlier this season at EchoPark Speedway, qualified sixth. Brent Crews, Rajah Caruth, Taylor Gray, and Patrick Staropoli rounded out the top-10.
Austin Hill, a five-time winner at the reconfigured EchoPark Speedway, will roll from 11th, with last weekend’s winner at Chicagoland, Brandon Jones, starting 12th. Other notables include Corey Day (13th), Justin Allgaier (16th).
Three drivers had somewhat substantial issues during qualifying, starting with Carson Ware, who nearly crashed his No. 47 Mike Harmon Racing Chevrolet on his qualifying lap. Jordan Anderson had a flat tire, and after a great save in Turns 3 and 4, came down pit road to abort.
Blaine Perkins, Anderson’s teammate, had a mechanical issue that saw the No. 31 Chevrolet Camaro slow dramatically coming towards the start-finish line, posting the slowest lap time at nearly 47 seconds.
The Focused Health 250 at EchoPark Speedway will take place July 11 at 7:00 PM ET on The CW.
