Daniel Dye was flyin’ on Friday afternoon at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 43 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet Silverado turned a blistering-fast lap time of 31.817 sec. (174.246 mph) in the second round of NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series qualifying for Saturday’s FR8 208.
The lap was more than enough to secure Dye’s first career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series pole position. Following the session, Dye said that the truck was a little hard to handle on his first round lap, as the truck was bouncing and darted due to the windy conditions at the track, but in Round 2, the truck was much better.
“We were definitely more stuck on that second run,” Dye explained. “I don’t know if maybe that was because the tires were warmed up a little bit. Still had some heat in it from that first lap. But whatever it was, it was fast enough to sit here and talk to you, so, it’s good. Exciting.”
Dye was the only driver to break the 174-mile-per-hour barrier in the session. As a result, the driver of the Champion Containers machine will lead the field to green for the first time in his 25th start in the NASCAR Truck Series.
Tyler Ankrum, Dye’s MHR teammate, will lineup alongside in the No. 18 Chevrolet Silverado. Ankrum turned a lap nearly one-and-a-half-tenths of a second slower than Dye’s lap, but it was enough to secure the outside pole for the 22-year-old racer.
Ty Majeski, Jack Wood, and Christian Eckes secured the remaining positions inside the top-five of the starting grid while Grant Enfinger, Kyle Busch, Matt Crafton, Chase Purdy, and Conner Jones will round out the top-10 starters for Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event.
For Busch, the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, this will mark his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start for Spire Motorsports, and it’ll be his first NASCAR Truck Series start for a team other than his own Kyle Busch Motorsports organization since the 2009 season. Busch has the all-time record for wins in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series with 64 heading into this weekend.
Jake Garcia, who is in race No. 2 of his tenure with ThorSport Racing, narrowly missed advancing to the second round of the qualifying session, as he clocked in with a lap time of 32.372 sec. (171.259 mph). Garcia was just 0.001 sec. shy of the 10th-place lap time turned by Chase Purdy in the opening round.
Ben Rhodes was one of numerous drivers who suffered from their truck bottoming out in the session. Rhodes would record the 12th-fastest lap in the session, and after climbing from his truck, he and crew chief Rich Lushes would look under the truck to confirm that what Rhodes felt behind the wheel was correct.
“Pretty accurate. The butt-o-meter is reading correctly,” Rhodes joked. “I knew right away what it was, it was the jack post. But hopefully, that didn’t slow us down too much. I would have liked to have been a little bit higher up on the time sheet here, but overall that’s okay. We’re going to work on some changes before the race to make it more comfortable.”
The surprise of the session was Rev Racing’s Nick Sanchez, who won the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway. Sanchez, who nearly always has speed in qualifying, was only able to muster the 18th-fastest lap in the session.
With only 33 trucks taking lap times on Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, there were no drivers or teams that failed to make it into Saturday’s event.
Qualifying Results / Starting Lineup 2024 FR8 208 at Atlanta Motor Speedway
Qualifying Results: 2024 NCTS FR8 208 at Atlanta Motor Speedway
