Sheldon Creed grabs pole for Pennzoil 250 at Indy

Sheldon Creed earned the pole for Saturday’s Pennzoil 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a lap of 53.069 seconds, putting him ahead of Carson Kvapil, Sam Mayer, Jeremy Clements and Taylor Gray. Chase Elliott was set to start seventh, Ross Chastain eighth, Justin Allgaier 13th and Austin Hill 19th in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race, which was scheduled to start at 1 p.m. PT, 4 p.m. ET and air on the CW Network.

The event arrives with the postseason Chase picture tightening, as drivers outside the top 12 have three regular-season races left to earn a berth. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Brent Crews and Taylor Gray entered Indianapolis 11th and 12th in the standings, Rajah Caruth was 13th and trailed Gray by 17 points and Crews by 18, and William Sawalich was 21 points behind Gray. Indianapolis has rewarded speed lately, with eight of the last 10 winners starting in the top three and all 10 finishing eighth or better, while four of the last 10 winners came from the pole.

Justin Allgaier, the 2018 Indianapolis winner and this year’s points leader with six victories, said the track is especially meaningful after he came close to winning there again last year. He led a JR Motorsports group that also included Elliott and Chastain, and the team was one top-10 finish away from extending its streak to 79 straight races. In practice on July 24, Chastain was fastest at 53.517 seconds, followed by Allgaier and Kvapil, with Mayer, Elliott and Jesse Love rounding out the top six. Crews was seventh after hitting the outside wall and sustaining moderate right-side damage, while Sawalich was briefly parked for a mechanical issue before finishing 16th in practice.