Tanner Gray will start from the pole in Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Gray’s lap time was 30.296 sec. (178.241 mph), which was nearly a tenth of a second faster than second-place qualifier Corey Heim, who is his teammate at TRICON Garage.
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For Gray, this is his second-career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series pole, his first-career pole came at Charlotte Motor Speedway in this race a season ago. The New Mexico native comes into this weekend 10th in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship standings.
Behind the TRICON Garage front row of Gray and Heim will be Ty Majeski in the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford F-150 and Rajah Caruth in the No. 71 HendrickCars.com Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado.
Majeski was on track when Tyler Ankrum spun near the end of the qualifying session, which forced Majeski to abort his run. NASCAR allowed the driver to cool his truck off on pit road, and per the ghost car tracker on FS1’s qualifying broadcast, Majeski had pole-winning speed until Turns 3 and 4, where Gray’s lap ultimately surpassed him.
Layne Riggs will start fifth in the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford F-150, and Chase Purdy will start alongside in row three.
There was plenty of drama in the qualifying session as 38 trucks in attendance meant that two drivers and teams would be going home. It appeared that one of those two teams would be the No. 67 MBM Motorsports entry with driver Jeffrey Earnhardt.
However, with Christian Eckes not taking a qualifying lap due to a practice incident earlier in the day, Tyler Ankrum spinning off of Turn 4 on his qualifying run, and Daniel Dye experiencing a hung throttle on his qualifying run, Earnhardt came in ahead of seven trucks, which was exactly what he needed to lock into the show.
The two drivers and teams that failed to make it into the show for Friday night’s NASCAR Truck Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway were Justin Carroll in the No. 90 TC Motorsports machine and Jennifer Jo Cobb in the No. 10 Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing entry.
