HAMPTON, Ga. — Report by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — Matt Hazlett/Getty Images for NASCAR photo —
It took him an extra 24 hours, but two-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Matt Crafton picked up right where he left off a year ago at Atlanta Motor Speedway (AMS) during Saturday’s Keystone Light Pole Qualifying session.
Crafton zipped around the 1.54 mile quad-oval in 30.836 seconds (179.790 mph) to secure his first career AMS pole in advance of Saturday afternoon’s Great Clips 200 (4:30 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM).
“This Menards Toyota Tundra is really good,” said Crafton, the defending winner of the AMS Truck race. “We didn’t really work on qualifying runs at all (in practice on Friday); we just worked on long run speed. The last practice, we ran 24 laps and 26 laps — so I had no idea what it was going to do in one lap.”
“To go out and run what we did there, I’m really happy with it and looking forward to the race. I was pleased with the long run performance at the end of the day (yesterday), so we’ll go out there and see what we can do with it later on. Hopefully we’ll get the same result as we did a year ago.”
Crafton bested series veteran John Wes Townley for the top starting spot, but Townley will still start to the champion’s flank after posting the second-fastest time (30.854/179.685), the fourth front-row start of his NCWTS career.
“This is a really tough race track — it’s all about tire management here,” Townley said of AMS. “I think we’ve got a pretty good race truck. We were hurting in race trim a little bit yesterday, but if it holds out (over the long run), we made some quality changes to the Truck that I think will help us out.”
“I’m glad to be at home in the state of Georgia, though, and I hope we can give all these fans a good showing this afternoon.”
Christopher Bell, who was fastest in the opening knockout round, ended up third overall in the final round with his lap of (30.858/179.662) for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Bell is coming off a 13-barrel roll crash on the final lap of last week’s season-opening NCWTS event at Daytona International Speedway and is looking for his first-career Truck win on pavement this weekend in Atlanta.
Friday practice leader Grant Enfinger (30.908/179.371) and Crafton’s ThorSport Racing teammate Cameron Hayley (31.014/178.758) rounded out the ‘Fast Five’.
Rookie contenders Cole Custer and Ben Rhodes qualified sixth and seventh, respectively; with Daytona runner-up Ryan Truex, Daniel Hemric, Ben Kennedy, Spencer Gallagher and Timothy Peters rounding out the 12 drivers who made it through to the final round of knockout qualifying.
Daniel Suarez, who qualified third in his NASCAR XFINITY Series car earlier in the morning, was the first driver who failed to advance from round one to round two. He will start 13th after his lap of 31.250 seconds (177.408 mph).
Other notables bumped from the top 12 in round one include 2015 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East champion and Truck rookie William Byron (15th), Daytona winner Johnny Sauter (16th), John Hunter Nemechek (18th), Brad Keselowski Racing championship contender Tyler Reddick (21st) and Rico Abreu (27th), who was the last driver in on speed for ThorSport Racing.
With 37 trucks on the property, five drivers failed to qualify for the 32-truck field: Jordan Anderson, Korbin Forrister, Norm Benning, Tim Viens and Ryan Ellis.
The Great Clips 200 takes the green flag at 4:30 p.m. ET, with live coverage on FOX Sports 1, the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
Follow @RaceChaserNews on Twitter for live updates throughout the Atlanta race weekend.
RESULTS: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Keystone Light Pole Qualifying; Atlanta Motor Speedway; Feb. 27, 2016
- Matt Crafton
- John Wes Townley
- Christopher Bell
- Grant Enfinger
- Cameron Hayley
- Cole Custer
- Ben Rhodes
- Ryan Truex
- Daniel Hemric
- Ben Kennedy
- Spencer Gallagher
- Timothy Peters
- Daniel Suarez
- Justin Marks
- William Byron
- Johnny Sauter
- Parker Kligerman
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Garrett Smithley
- Austin Wayne Self
- Tyler Reddick
- Tyler Young
- Austin Hill
- Brandon Brown
- Caleb Holman
- J.J. Yeley
- Rico Abreu
- Tommy Joe Martins
- Travis Kvapil
- Timmy Hill
- Carlos Contreras
- Jennifer Jo Cobb
DNQ: Jordan Anderson, Korbin Forrister, Norm Benning, Tim Viens, Ryan Ellis
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network. Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 22-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for both the United Sprint Car Series and the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
Email Jacob at: speed77radio@gmail.com
Follow on Twitter: @Speed77Radio or @JacobSeelman77
Email Race Chaser Online: news@racechaseronline.com
Follow RCO on Twitter: @RaceChaserNews
