Derek Kraus will start from his fourth career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series pole tonight in the playoff race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Kraus captured the pole, his second of the season, with a top speed of 125.609 mph around the half-mile track.
The pole is notable because the McAnally–Hilgemann Racing driver isn’t in the playoff field.
“It’s going to be clean air for sure, that will help a lot,” Kraus told FS1. His other pole this year came on dirt at Knoxville Raceway.
Completing the top five for Thursday night’s race is Chandler Smith, Stewart Friesen, Grant Enfinger and Corey Heim. Heim is the only other non-playoff driver in the top five.
Chris Hacker spun out of Turn 4 and had minimal contact with the inside wall during his qualifying run. He’ll start 30th out of 36 trucks.
Click here for the Truck Series starting lineup for Bristol.
Practice
Before qualifying two 15 minute practice sessions were held which split the field in two.
Matt DiBenedetto was fastest overall.
The top five was rounded out by Friesen, Ty Majeski, Colby Howard and Heim.
Rajah Caruth was fastest out of the first group (121.999 mph) and seventh fastest overall.
John Hunter Nemechek, who won last weekend’s race at Kansas Speedway, suffered an incident late in the Group B session. He was driving his No. 4 truck through Turn 1 and 2 when he cut down a tire and shot up into the outside wall. He’ll go to a back-up truck.
Zane Smith suffered a parts failure during the session that caused his no. 38 Ford to spew liquid. Smith would not be able to make qualifying run, forcing him to start from the rear.
Click here for the practice report.
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