Austin Hill wins pole for United Rentals 300 at Daytona

Austin Hill will lead the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series field to the green flag in Saturday's season-opening United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway. 

Hill beat his Richard Childress Racing teammate and defending series champion Jesse Love for the pole position, which is the seventh of his O'Reilly Auto Parts Series career and his third at Daytona.

"It's Daytona, so anything can happen," Hill told CW Sports. "We just brought a fast Chevrolet today. I was a little worried after the first round, but as a driver, as a team, you don't want to show your hand fully in that first hand because you know you have another round."

Hill has won three of the last four season-opening races at Daytona, while Love is the defending United Rentals 300 winner. He and Love are considered the two best superspeedway racers in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series field. 

Notable qualifying results

Love, Sam Mayer, William Sawalich and Sheldon Creed rounded out the top-five in qualifying, with Corey Day, Rajah Caruth, Patrick Staropoli, Taylor Gray and Ryan Sieg completing the top 10. 

Sawalich was the fastest driver in the first round of qualifying. Jeb Burton was fastest in Friday's practice session. 

Pre-race coverage for the United Rentals 300 will begin at 4 p.m. ET on the CW and 4:30 p.m. ET on MRN. The green flag will fly shortly after 5 p.m. ET on the CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.