Alex Bowman, making his only scheduled NASCAR Xfinity Series appearance this season, will lead the field to green in Saturday’s GOVX 200 at Phoenix Raceway.

The Tucson, Arizona-native posted the quickest lap in Saturday morning’s qualifying session at the one-mile track, recording a time of 27.276 seconds (131.984mph) to secure his fourth career pole in NASCAR’s second-tier series.

This marks Bowman’s first Xfinity Series pole since Michigan International Speedway in June 2016, when he drove the No. 88 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports. The multi-time NASCAR Cup Series winner is piloting the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in this event, giving the part-time entry its fifth pole position since being revived at the beginning of 2022.

Sheldon Creed, making his fourth start for Haas Factory Team, qualified second and will join Bowman on the front row with new sponsor Pit Boss Grills adorning his No. 00 machine.

JR Motorsports teammates Sammy Smith and Connor Zilisch secured the second row for Saturday’s event, while Daytona winner Jesse Love rounded out the top five qualifiers.

William Sawalich, who earned the pole position for last fall’s Xfinity race at Phoenix, will start sixth. Nick Sanchez of Big Machine Racing qualified seventh, followed by Aric Almirola, Taylor Gray, and Austin Hill completing the top ten.

Defending series champion Justin Allgaier, who led the only Xfinity Series practice session at Phoenix, will start from 14th position. Anthony Alfredo, who posted the second-fastest time in practice, qualified 25th.

The qualifying session proceeded without incident, with Greg Van Alst recording the slowest time among the 38 entries. With the field exactly matching the number of available starting positions, no teams will be heading home before the green flag drops.

The GOVX 200 at Phoenix Raceway is scheduled to begin at 5:00 PM ET on Saturday, March 8, with television coverage on The CW and radio broadcasts available on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Photo: Alex Bowman/Facebook