Sheldon Creed is the furthest behind of the five drivers still mathematically eligible to win the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship, but the Haas Factory Team driver isn’t going down without a fight, winning the pole for Saturday’s event at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Piloting the No. 00 Road Ranger Chevrolet Camaro, Creed was able to lay down a heater in Saturday morning’s single-vehicle qualifying session from Homestead, clocking in at 33.578 seconds (160.820mph) to snatch the pole away from his former teammate Austin Hill (also a teammate of championship rival Jesse Love).

It’s the sixth NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series pole position for Creed, his third with Haas Factory Team, and his second of the year – the first of which came at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July. The Alpine, California-native will leave HFT at season’s end to join Sam Hunt Racing.

“Certainly, a bittersweet weekend for us on this No. 00 team,” Creed told The CW. “To start the weekend pretty good in practice and then get the pole is awesome for tonight. Yeah, we’ll see what we have on the short-run; I feel really confident in our long-run speed. Just proud of everyone at Haas Factory Team and appreciate everyone at Road Ranger for being on-board this weekend. We’ll just go try and have the best night possible.”

Carson Kvapil (fourth in points entering Homestead) will start from the third position in the No. 1 for JR Motorsports, with defending NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion Jesse Love in fourth. Brent Crews rounded out the top-five for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Parker Retzlaff, Corey Day, Brandon Jones, William Sawalich, and Nick Sanchez rounded out the top-10.

The one driver in the five-person championship fight that qualified outside the top-10 in series points leader Justin Allgaier, who comes into Homestead with a 22-point advantage over Jesse Love, and will start the race from the 11th position.

Other Chase-eligible drivers starting outside the top-10 include Sam Mayer in 12th, who was extremely quick in practice, Rajah Caruth in 13th, Sammy Smith 14th, and Taylor Gray 15th. With 38 drivers on the grid, everybody will compete in Saturday’s event.

The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway will take place on Saturday, November 7 at 5:00 PM ET on The CW.