Sheldon Creed won his first NASCAR Xfinity series pole after posting the fastest qualifying lap Saturday morning for the Portland Pacific Office Automation 147 at Portland International Raceway.
Driving the No. 00 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, Creed edged Cole Custer for the pole. Creed’s fastest lap at the 12-turn PIR road course was 74.111 seconds.
Qualifying set the 38-car field Saturday afternoon’s event. The green flag for the 147.75-mile, 75-lap race drops shortly after 1:30 p.m. (FS1).
Creed, looking for his first win of the 2023 season, is seventh in the Xfinity standings.
Rounding out the top five are Josh Berry, series leader John Hunter Nemechek and Justin Allgaier, who won Monday’s Xfinity race in Charlotte.
Creed said it was important to win the pole because he believes track position at PIR will play a role in Saturday afternoon’s race.
“Passing is going to be more difficult than other road courses we go to,” Creed said.
Here is the starting lineup, based on qualifying:
No. 2 Sheldon Creed, Chevolet
2. No. 00 Cole Custer, Ford
3. No. 8 Josh Berry, Chevrolet
4. No. 20 John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota
5. No. 7 Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet
6. No. 10 Jordan Taylor, Chevrolet
7. No. 16 Chandler Smith, Chevrolet
8. No. 21 Austin Hill, Chevrolet
9. No. 19 Myatt Snider, Toyota
10. No. 11 Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet
11. No. 24 Connor Mosack, Chevrolet
12. No. 98 Riley Herbst, Ford
13. No. 27 Jeb Burton, Chevrolet
14. No. 48 Parker Kligerman, Chevrolet
15. No. 91 Alex Labre, Chevolet
16. No. 18 Sammy Smith, Toyota
17. No. 78 Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet
18. No. 26 Kaz Grala, Toyota
19. No. 25 Brett Moffitt, Foerd
20. No. 51 Jeremy Clement, Chevrolet
21. No. 43 Leland Honeyman, Chevrolet
22. No. 44 Dylan Lupton, Chevrolet
23. No. 31 Parker Retzlaff, Chevrolet
24. No. 39 Ryan Sieg, Ford
25. No. 8 Preston Pardus, Ford
26. No. 6 Brennan Poole, Chevrolet
27. No. 2 Blaine Perkins, Chevrolet
28. No. 92 Josh Williams, Chevrolet
29. No. 53 Patrick Emerling, Chevrolet
30. No. 28 Kyle Sieg, Ford
31. No. 45 Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet
32. No. 35 Parker Chase, Toyota
33. No. 38 Joe Graf Jr., Ford
34. No. 66 Mason Maggio, Toyota
35. No. 4 Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet
36. No. 1 Sam Mayer, Chevrolet
37. No. 9 Brandon Jones, Chevrolet
38. No. 7 Stefan Parson, Chevrolet
–Nick Daschel | ndaschel@oregonian.com | @nickdaschel
