The competition needs to take notice because Ben Rhodes has a very fast truck this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. The two-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion turned the fastest lap of qualifying for Friday night’s SpeedyCash.com 250 and secured his first pole position of the 2026 season.
Starting Lineup: NCTS SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas
Rhodes’ pole-winning run came on the back of a 29.174-second lap time, which equated to a 185.096 mph average speed around the 1.5-mile intermediate oval.
This pole marks the seventh of Rhodes’ NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career, and it comes in career start No. 242.
Jake Garcia came up shy of the pole position by a razor-thin margin of 0.027 seconds, but the driver of the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford F-150 was able to make it a clean sweep of the front row for the race team.
Gio Ruggiero, who drives the No. 17 TRICON Garage Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, will start from the third position, as he chases his second career Truck Series win on Friday night.
Cole Butcher, a Rookie of the Year contender in the series, nailed down the fourth starting spot, which gives ThorSport Racing three of the top-four starters in the event. Ty Majeski, who drives the team’s fourth truck, the No. 88, was only able to muster the 20th position in the qualifying session.
Tanner Gray rounded out the top-five qualifiers for the SpeedyCash.com 250.
Kyle Busch was the fastest of the full-time NASCAR Cup Series drivers, who will attempt to steal the lunch money from the Truck Series regulars on Friday night. Busch will roll from the starting grid in the sixth position.
Carson Hocevar, who scored his first career NASCAR Cup Series win last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, will start from the 11th position in the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado, while Ross Chastain qualified 23rd in the No. 45 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado.
One of the favorites to win this year’s championship, Layne Riggs, was unable to turn a qualifying lap in the session, as his truck suffered a mechanical issue. Riggs will start from the 34th position on Friday night.
Cory Roper, driving the No. 62 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota this weekend, was also unable to turn a qualifying lap after he got into the wall and caused damage to his truck in Friday afternoon’s practice session. Roper will start shotgun on the field in the 35th starting spot.
