DOVER, Del. – Noah Gragson has been on a roll ever since he arrived at Dover Int’l Speedway, and the Las Vegas native’s strong showing continued during NASCAR Camping World Truck Series qualifying on Friday.
Gragson led both the second and third knockout rounds to notch his fourth Truck Series pole and first of the season. He toured the one-mile concrete oval in 22.834 seconds (157.660 mph) on his final run with the No. 18 Safelite Auto Glass Toyota Tundra.
The 19-year-old was also fastest in the first NASCAR Xfinity Series practice earlier in the day at Dover and will run double-duty this weekend, driving the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing on Saturday.
“There’s so much load and grip here that when you get off in the corner, it feels like you’re diving down 100 feet. Then when you land, there’s so much load on your body that you feel like there’s a 100-pound gorilla on your shoulders,” said Gragson of the Monster Mile.
“I’m super pumped, though. This is our first pole of year and I’m super excited to get out here and perform this weekend,” Gragson added. “I’m just trying to learn as much as I can every time I’m on the race track. My time in the Xfinity Series has definitely helped me the last few races. It’s grown me as a driver and made me better. I’ve just been a sponge over there (at Joe Gibbs Racing), trying to soak up information whether I’m in the Xfinity car or back here in my truck. Learning, learning, learning is what it’s all about.”
Another double-duty driver – GMS Racing’s Johnny Sauter – will join Gragson on the front row for Friday’s race. Sauter barely advanced out of the opening round but posted the second-fastest lap of 22.942 seconds (156.917 mph) with his No. 21 Allegiant Travel Chevrolet Silverado in the final round.
Sauter will run Saturday’s Xfinity Series event for GMS due to the recent suspension of series regular Spencer Gallagher for a violation of the sanctioning body’s substance abuse policy.
Todd Gilliland and Justin Haley will share row two of the grid, followed by Jesse Little in fifth.
Parker Kligerman, Stewart Friesen, Ben Rhodes, David Gilliland, Matt Crafton, Dalton Sargeant and Brett Moffitt completed the top 12 and all advanced through each of the three knockout rounds.
ThorSport Racing’s Grant Enfinger was the first driver who failed to advance to the final round of qualifying, posting the 13th-fastest lap (23.132/155.629) in the No. 98 Curb Records Ford F-150.
“We were a little tight, but we have a really good truck,” noted Enfinger. “Right after landing (on corner entry), it was just tight enough that it would squeeze me out of the groove and I’d lose a little bit of forward momentum. We’re good on race runs, though, so we’ll take that to the race and see what happens.”
Other notables starting outside the first six rows include Myatt Snider (15th) and Joe Nemechek (16th).
However, the biggest moment in qualifying came when Harrison Burton got 45-degrees sideways off the exit of turn four and nearly went nse-first into the inside wall on the frontstretch before saving his No. 51 DEX Imaging Toyota Tundra.
“I hope it looked cool for the fans!” joked Burton. “We were close there; that’s what you call wrecking and not wrecking. I’m glad we brought this thing back in one piece, though. We were tight all day yesterday, so we took a big swing at adjusting on it today and we got a big response. That’s good to have happen so we can see that the truck can have free tendencies. We’ve just got to find the in-between point and then I think we’ll be really good.”
Dirt track ace Tanner Thorson qualified 20th for his Truck Series debut with Young’s Motorsports.
To view the full starting lineup, advance to the next page.
