Austin Dillon lands XFINITY Coors Light Pole Award

Series points leader Ty Dillon clinched the second starting spot in the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevrolet with a lap of 179.892 mph. Brian Scott landed the third starting position at 179.538 mph in the No. 2 Chevy, clinching a 1-2-3 sweep in qualifying for team owner Richard Childress.

Erik Jones, set to make just his 12th XFINITY start Saturday afternoon, was fourth-fastest in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota. He was just ahead of JGR teammate Boris Said, making his first appearance in the series since 2011, driving the No. 54 Toyota in place of the injured Kyle Busch.

The session marked the first time since NASCAR competition officials scrapped the group qualifying format on tracks where restrictor plates sap engine power. The previous format, introduced before the 2014 season, has worked well on almost every other type of track, but did not translate well to stock-car racing's largest speedways, where gamesmanship and close racing in aerodynamic packs led to multicar crashes.

After a series of stackups in qualifying for all three national series during Daytona Speedweeks in February, NASCAR's competition department made a rules change March 30 to revise the restrictor-plate qualifying system.

Saturday, drivers made single-car runs with no more than two cars on the track at a time in a staggered start to their qualifying laps. One portion of the 2014 qualifying change remained -- the knockout stages -- with the fastest 12 cars from the first round advancing to the final round to determine the order for the first six rows on the starting grid.

Dakoda Armstrong, piloting the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43, was 13th-fastest in the opening round, making him the first driver to miss the final cut. Armstrong was just ahead of defending series champ Chase Elliott, who qualified 14th in the JR Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet.

Chris Cockrum, Derrike Cope, Carlos Contreras, Bobby Gerhart and Mike Harmon failed to qualify for the 40-car field.

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