NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series rookie Gio Ruggiero will lead the field to green in Friday’s Love’s RV Stops 225 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Ruggiero, who drives the No. 17 First Auto Group-sponsored Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for TRICON Garage, laid down the quickest time in the second round of Friday’s single-vehicle qualifying session.
Posting a lap time of 54.292 seconds (equivalent to an average speed of 176.380mph), Ruggiero beat out defending NASCAR Truck Series champion Ty Majeski and teammate Corey Heim to win his second career pole in NASCAR’s third-tier division.
The native of Seekonk, Massachusetts, has one prior NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start on a traditional superspeedway, which came in February at Daytona, where he finished runner-up to Corey Heim after leading 11 laps late in the event.
STARTING LINEUP: 2025 NCTS Love’s RV Stops 225 at Talladega
Ty Majeski ended up being second-quickest in Friday’s qualifying session and will start alongside Ruggiero as the driver of the No. 98 Ford F-150 looks for his first victory of 2025 and a berth in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race at Phoenix.
Corey Heim, the most recent winner in the NASCAR Truck Series from the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL (which guaranteed him a spot in the Championship 4, will start from the third position.
Matt Crafton, a teammate of Majeski’s at ThorSport Racing, will launch from the outside of the second row on Friday afternoon, putting together his second top-five starting spot of the 2025 campaign. Crafton, a veteran of the Truck Series, is set to retire at season’s end.
Kaden Honeycutt rounded out the top five, serving as interim driver for Stewart Friesen in the No. 52 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for Halmar Friesen Racing.
Luke Fenhaus will start from sixth, while Ben Rhodes, Tyler Ankrum, Bret Holmes, and Tanner Gray complete the top-10. TRICON Garage got four of its five entries into the final round of qualifying, the lone exception being Toni Breidinger, who will start from 30th.
Of the eight drivers still eligible for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs, only four of them managed to qualify inside the top-10. The other four were Rajah Caruth in 11th, Grant Enfinger in 15th, Daniel Hemric in 17th, and Layne Riggs in 35th.
Riggs and the No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford F-150 for Front Row Motorsports will have to start at the rear of the field for Friday’s event, after the team was found making unapproved adjustments to the vehicle. Not only will the team start from the back, but they’ll lose pit selection for next weekend’s elimination race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Caleb Costner, in the No. 74 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for Mike Harmon Racing, also did not post a lap in qualifying. However, due to there only being 36 trucks entered for Friday’s event, no teams will be heading home early.
