Sam Hornish Jr. wins NASCAR Xfinity pole at Mid

Sam Hornish Jr. won the pole for Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at the Mid-Ohio road circuit on Friday.

Ty Dillon, Brendan Gaughan and Brandon Jones hope to further solidify their places in the standings Saturday in the Mid-Ohio Challenge at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Track: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (road, 2.08 miles) Race distance: (169.35 miles, 75 laps) Last year: Regan Smith held off Alex Tagliani for his fifth career win. Engine troubles forced him from that race, which was won by Chris Buescher. Kelly has raced in four NASCAR national series races but is appearing for the first time since 2013.

From Defiance, Ohio, Hornish is driving Richard Childress Racing’s No. 2 Chevrolet Camaro, teaming crew chief Gil Martin. While it’s nice to be out there racing each weekend, I know how much it frustrates me if we can’t run well. The biggest thing I took away from that was to make sure to stay on the racetrack.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series gets back into action this afternoon for the Mid-Ohio 200.

Australian road racing specialist Owen Kelly will start second in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota after his 95.877mph lap. “I arrive here in America deliberately at this time of year just in case something like this happened”. He is coming off a fourth-place finish at Watkins Glen last week, another road course.

“I didn’t have my license organized so we had to scramble and get that done”.

The race is at 3:30 p.m. and will be televised by USA Network.