HAMPTON, Ga. – John Hunter Nemechek and Kyle Busch will resume their NASCAR Camping World Truck Series battle this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway right where they left off two weeks ago.
The pair will share the front row for Saturday’s Fr8Auctions 200, with Nemechek receiving the Cometic Gasket Pole Award courtesy of the highest metric score among the 40 trucks entered to compete.
Lap speed is weighted at 15 percent, previous race finish at 25 percent for the driver and owner results and owner points position at 35 percent to calculate the final metric score.
Nemechek earned the pole with a perfect metric score of 1.0, factoring in his win from Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway, the fastest lap from that event and his top seeding in the point standings after three of 22 races this season.
Busch will start second looking to keep Nemechek from scoring a second straight Truck Series victory, after finishing runner-up to his young hire last time out at Las Vegas.
Toyota Tundras swept the top six starting positions for the Atlanta Truck Series event, with ThorSport Racing’s Matt Crafton and Halmar-Friesen Racing’s Stewart Friesen sharing the second row and Ben Rhodes and Austin Hill starting fifth and sixth, respectively.
Zane Smith and Sheldon Creed roll from seventh and eighth in a pair of GMS Racing Chevrolet Silverados, with Todd Gilliland and Brett Moffitt filling out the top 10 starters.
Ross Chastain, who finished second in Truck Series points two years ago and is now racing full time in the NASCAR Cup Series, starts last in the 40-truck field in his return to Niece Motorsports.
To view the complete starting lineup and full performance metric breakdown, click here.
Saturday’s Fr8Auctions 200 takes the green flag at 2:30 p.m. ET, live on FS1, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
It’s the first race of an afternoon doubleheader with the NASCAR Xfinity Series at the 1.54-mile quad-oval.