For the second time in his last three starts, Kaden Honeycutt will lead the field to the green flag in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, as the driver scored his second career pole position in Friday’s qualifying session at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Starting Lineup: Tennessee Army National Guard 250 at Bristol
However, Honeycutt was really close to not bringing his truck back to pit road in one piece, as he slid sideways off the exit of Turn 4 on his final lap of the run. It was enough to leave the driver visibly shaking after he climbed from his No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota Tundra TRD Pro.
“I don’t know if y’all can see that,” Honeycutt said with his trembling hand facing the FS2 cameras. “That’s what this place does to you, man, that is so awesome. I love this stuff. That second lap, I just went after it a little harder. I knew that first lap was really good, just seeing if I could get a little bit extra. That was kinda shades of ’23 qualifying, where I actually wrecked the truck. This time, I didn’t do that, and we get to start on pole.”
Honeycutt’s pole-winning run was a 15.066-second lap time, which equated to a 127.360 mph average speed, and was enough, by 0.019 seconds, to top Christian Eckes for the P1 qualifying spot.
Eckes will start alongside Honeycutt on the front row, and he’ll chase after his first win of the season in his No. 91 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet Silverado.
Layne Riggs was able to register the third-fastest lap time in the session, behind the wheel of his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford F-150, clocking in just ahead of NASCAR Cup Series regular Chase Briscoe, who was fourth-fastest.
Earlier in the day, Briscoe had turned the fastest lap in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series practice at Bristol, but was not quite able to back that up for the pole. Still, he’ll roll from the starting grid inside the top five on Friday night.
Jake Garcia, who scored the pole position last weekend at Rockingham Speedway, had another terrific qualifying run this weekend, as he’ll start Friday night’s race from the fifth position.
Ty Majeski, Carson Hocevar, Kyle Busch, Ben Rhodes, and Gio Ruggiero rounded out the top-10 fastest qualifiers for the Tennessee Army National Guard 250.
