LAS VEGAS – Johnny Sauter earned his eighth career Cometic Gasket Pole Award during NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series qualifying Friday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Sauter topped the 35 trucks that turned laps in time trials with a clip of 30.365 seconds (177.836 mph) in the No. 13 Tenda Ford F-150 for ThorSport Racing.
The 2016 Truck Series champion’s last pole before Friday evening was at Texas Motor Speedway in November of 2018, 27 races ago.
“Another pole for me, I can’t even remember the last time I had a pole. I think Ben Herr was still racing,” Sauter quipped. “I’m proud of everybody at ThorSport on our Tenda Ford. This thing ripped. It was super fast right off the truck this morning and you just know (when it’s that good). I think our long-run speed was really, really good too.That’s what everyone’s telling me, at least. I didn’t really investigate it myself too much.
“We’ve just got good stuff this year. I feel really comfortable where we’re at as far as the 13 team and ThorSport as an organization,” Sauter added. “I think if we do everything right tonight, we’ve got a good shot at it.”
Sheldon Creed will join Sauter on the front row for Friday night’s Strat 200, with a time of 30.398 seconds (177.643 mph) in the No. 2 Chevy.com/Trench Shoring Chevrolet Silverado for GMS Racing.
It’s the second front-row start of Creed’s Truck Series career.
“We’ve had speed from the beginning of practice. It just wasn’t driving really well, so I was kind of hard on the guys,” Creed noted. “During practice, we made changes and pretty much ran two laps at a time and just try to get it to drive good. I feel like we’re pretty trimmed out, so we’re fast by ourselves. It has to handle good. That’s the name of the game in traffic.
“We’ll just get through our stages and be at the front at the end.”
All-time Truck Series wins leader Kyle Busch and his teenaged protege, Christian Eckes, will share the second row of the grid. Ty Majeski filled out the top five for Niece Motorsports.
Defending Las Vegas Truck Series winner Austin Hill, Tyler Ankrum, rookie Raphael Lessard, Daytona winner Grant Enfinger and 2018 series champion Brett Moffitt completed the top 10.
With 35 trucks on the grounds for 32 starting spots, Bayley Currey, Jennifer Jo Cobb and Korbin Forrister failed to qualify.
The Strat 200 is scheduled for a 9 p.m. ET start time, live on FOX Sports 1, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
To view the full starting lineup, advance to the next page.