ANDERSON, Ind. — For the third time in his career Tyler Roahrig will lead the 33-car field to start the 78th running of the Unified Group Services Little 500.
Roahrig turned four laps at 44 seconds for an average speed of 81.81 mph as he seeks his third Little 500 victory.
Roahrig turned the fastest lap at 10.963 seconds around the quarter-mile high banked Anderson Speedway.
“After practice we made some adjustments to it,” he said. “The track changing was the sun being out, which was the biggest difference. I would have expected the track to be faster after picking up some rubber.
“It’s a really tight field, probably the tightest I’ve ever seen,” Roahrig said. “Get into a rhythm and you don’t want to wait too long before qualifying.”
Roahrig will be joined by Jackson Macenko, who qualified in the middle of the front row with a four-lap average of 81.41 mph.
“I don’t know if I expected second,” Macenko said. “We practiced yesterday (Wednesday) and today really well. I was really happy with the car, didn’t have to hustle it to get a good lap time.”
He said qualifying would be only one run and take the time we turned.
“I still have a to get a little bit better in qualifying, but we’re getting closer,” Macenko said.
Three-time Little 500 champion Kody Swanson will start on the outside of the front row.
“We have been on the front runner together before,” Swanson said of the front row start with Roahrig. “It’s good to be back on the front row again. I’m glad to be in the mix.”
He said some teams in the past few years have been qualifying early and it was working out for them.
“I had four pretty good laps, but none were great,” Swanson said. “I was consistent, but just a tick off.”
Thirty-four teams took qualifying times on Thursday, with the potential for other entries on Friday with several teams in possession of additional sprint cars that could make qualification attempts.
Unlike in some prior years, the drivers expected to compete for the locked in 15 positions on CB Fabricating Pole Day went out early during the qualifying session on Thursday at Anderson Speedway.
The fastest 15 qualifiers were within one-second of each other.
The track proved to have lots of grip and with sunny skies teams wanted to get out to make a qualifying run before the heat of the day.
The starting field will be set on Friday during “bump day” qualifying that will start at 12:30 p.m.
The second row will be comprised by Davey Hamilton Jr., Logan Seavey and Shane Hollingsworth.
Mario Clouser was the top rookie qualifier posting the 21st fastest time.
Several drivers spun with only Anderson rookie driver Josh Poore making slight contact with the inside barrier on the back straight.
Poore would make a second attempt and qualified 25th in the field.
The results:
1) Tyler Roahrig; 2) Jackson Macenko; 3) Kody Swanson; 4) Davey Hamilton Jr.; 5) Logan Seavey; 6) Shane Hollingsworth; 7) Dakoda Armstrong; 8) Jake Trainor; 9) Ryan Newman; 10) Kyle O’Gara; 11) Derek Bischak; 12) Brian Vauughn; 13) Colton Bettis; 14) Justin Grant; 15) C.J. Leary; 16) Michael Lewis; 17) Bobby Santos III; 18) Anthony Nocella; 19) Billy Wease; 20) Landon Butler; 21) Mario Clouser; 22) Donnie Adams Jr.; 23) Rylan Gray; 24) Tony Main; 25) Josh Poore; 26) Colin Grissom; 27) Travis Welpott; 28) Shane Butler; 29) Justin Harper; 30) David Goodwill; 31) Chris Schmelzle; 32) Garrett Saunders; 33) Rob Keesling; 34) Jerry Kozba
