Nothing beats qualifying drama in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and Friday’s session for the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway brought the drama as 38 trucks were vying for the 36 starting spots in the field.
With just a few trucks left to take a qualifying time, it appeared that Jeffrey Earnhardt and the No. 67 MBM Motorsports team would be on the outside looking in with a 32.045 second (168.513 mph) lap.
With Christian Eckes not taking a qualifying time due to a crash in practice earlier in the day, Earnhardt had out-qualified five trucks, but the magic number for the fourth-generation racer was seven trucks. And with nothing but top-tier trucks left in the qualifying order, it seemed highly unlikely that Earnhardt would make the field.
Then, the unthinkable happened.
The throttle hung on Daniel Dye’s No. 43 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet Silverado, which caused him to abort his qualifying run after taking the green flag, and moments later, Dye’s teammate Tyler Ankrum would lose control and would spin coming off of Turn 4 on his qualifying attempt.
Over a few quick minutes, Earnhardt experienced a variety of emotions, but in the end, he somehow had solidified his spot in the field.
.@jearnhardt1 admits he was hoping for misfortune for others as he was really wanting to make tonight’s @NASCAR_Trucks race, but can’t believe he locked in with Tyler Ankrum’s spin. Earnhardt says he feels like he, “must be living right.” pic.twitter.com/SVDOgIA0dc
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) May 24, 2024
“Yeah, I don’t know. I must be living right or something. A couple of guys had some misfortune, and it worked out in our favor, and we made the show,” Earnhardt said with a smile after the qualifying session.
Earnhardt says that with his hopes of making it into the field dwindling with a couple of trucks remaining, he was hoping some sort of situation would get him into the field. His hopes were answered, and the thankful Earnhardt vows to race hard in Friday night’s event and he is hopeful that his MBM Motorsports team can make the necessary changes to improve the handling of his No. 67 Toyota Tundra..
“I can’t say I wasn’t hoping for misfortune for other drivers,” Earnhardt chuckled, “but man, it’s definitely an honor to come back to the Truck Series, [and] make the race. After the way our practice went, I thought the chances were pretty slim. I knew our qualifying lap wasn’t that great. If we can get the truck off the ground, I think we’ll be alright. Just thankful to be able to be out here and to give these Forgotten K9 guys a good run tonight. We’re going to race hard, race smart, and hopefully be there at the end.”
While MBM Motorsports has been in the NASCAR garage for a long time with car owner Carl Long, the team doesn’t have an extensive NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series notebook. With the deal with Earnhardt coming together so quickly, and only having one brief practice session to tune on the truck, the team could only do so much.
“It started with we missed the setup a little bit showing up here,” Earnhardt admitted. “But the guys have some ideas to get it up off the track. We were eating the track pretty hard. So, get it off the track and see if we can get this Forgotten Coast K9 Toyota to the front.”
Earnhardt believes in the hard-working MBM team, which is led by Long, who was a former NASCAR driver.
“You know, Carl has been around a long time. I’ve always had a lot of respect for the guy for just how hard he works to be able to maintain and be here every weekend with Trucks, Xfinity, Cup, whatever it is. He has his hands in it and keeps fighting to be here. Pretty cool to get to run for him,” Earnhardt stated. “He said he’s going to get it off the track for us, and we’re going to go haul the mail. We’ll see if that happens. I have confidence in him, and I have confidence in this whole crew. We’ll go out there and make the best of tonight, and hopefully get a top-15 out of this deal.”
Earnhardt will roll from the grid in Friday night’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway from the 31st position. But regardless what transpires, he made the show, which is better than it looked like he and the No. 67 team would achieve after he completed their qualifying lap.
