Those thinking that Kyle Busch has lost a step behind the wheel were given a reminder on Friday afternoon at Dover Motor Speedway that the driver is still plenty capable of cranking out fast lap times in the NASCAR National Series ranks.
Busch, who led the way in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series practice ahead of Friday evening’s ECOSAVE 200, followed that session-topping speed with a pole-winning run in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series qualifying.
Starting Lineup: NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series ECOSAVE 200 at Dover
The 41-year-old racer cranked out a fast lap time of 22.258 seconds, which equated to a 161.740 mph average speed around the 1-mile high-banked concrete oval. The lightning-quick lap was enough for Busch to secure the pole position by a margin of 0.027 seconds over Ty Majeski.
Busch said he, and everyone else, laid it all on the line in the qualifying session.
“Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of guys were [letting it all hang out]. I heard a lot of on-throttle time; it’s just a matter of how fast can your truck carry it, right?” Busch explained. “Brian Pattie and these guys got our Spire Motorsports Silverado tuned right up, and so it’s nice to put the HendrickCars.com Chevy on the pole here, and lead the field to green.”
Busch says he hopes to keep the No. 7 machine up front and allow everyone to battle for the runner-up spot behind him all race long.
“Want to keep it out in clean air, and make this our race,” Busch said.
This pole marks the 24th of Busch’s 183-race NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career. Now, the Las Vegas native will look to notch his 69th career series win.
Cementing how competitive the session was, the top-four positions in qualifying were separated by less than a tenth of a second. Behind the front row of Busch and Majeski will be Gio Ruggiero and Kaden Honeycutt, last week’s race winner at Watkins Glen, who will make up Row 2 of the starting grid.
Christopher Bell, driving the No. 62 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota, will start fifth, while Brandon Jones, Jake Garcia, Ross Chastain, Andres Perez de Lara, and Daniel Hemric rounded out the top-10 qualifiers.
Clint Bowyer, who is competing in a one-off race with Ram Trucks, as the driver of the No. 25 Kaulig Racing Free Agent Driver entry, will start the race from the 22nd position. Bowyer, who has struggled with a tight-handling condition off the truck, says he needs more seat time.
“Well, just more laps, right? I knew qualifying — have you ever seen me qualify? Qualifying is always my problematic area,” Bowyer quipped. “But just still kind of tight with the front end. You can’t really hold it wide open like some of those guys, because it starts pushing through the front tires. We’ve been freeing up, but then you have to be careful about the rear end coming out from underneath it.”
Bowyer feels like, over the long run, he’ll be able to work his way forward in Friday evening’s race.
“I think, honestly, the track is rubbering up quite a bit. And I think trucks will fall off. If I can keep my balance underneath of me, I think we can pick through a few of them,” Bowyer said.
Dystany Spurlock, who had to sit for 20 minutes of practice due to issues in technical inspection, was able to qualify 34th for the event. In officially making it through practice and qualifying without issue, Spurlock, who cut her racing teeth on NHRA dragstrips, will become the first Black female to compete in a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event when she takes the green flag at Dover on Friday.
