BRISTOL, Tenn. — Ahead of his final NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start of the year, Kyle Busch grabbed the Keystone Light Pole Award on Wednesday evening at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Busch toured the 0.533-mile concrete oval in 14.827 seconds (129.413 mph) to put the No. 46 Banfield Pet Hospital Toyota Tundra out front for the UNOH 200 (8:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM).
However, he was unsure how big an effect the VHT traction compound that speedway officials laid down would have come race time, with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour racing before the Trucks.
“The modifieds race before us so with them taking more off … they already took off a lot just from practice to qualifying for us,” Busch said. “With their race, they’re going to take off a lot more of that VHT and it’s going to change the racetrack so (the groove) will be going to be ever-changing, ever-revolving.”
“We’ll see how bad it is when we first fire off for the start of the race … what happens and whether the groove moves around or not. … The bottom’s really fast. It’s the dominant lane right now and it’s going to be interesting how you make passes and if you’re able to make passes. It’s the last one of this year and hopefully we can get a win and look forward to finishing the year on a high note.”
Kyle Busch Motorsports teams swept the front row and landed in three of the top four starting spots, with series points leader Christopher Bell qualifying second-fastest at a clip of 14.920 seconds (128.606 mph) in the No. 4 JBL/SiriusXM Toyota Tundra.
Defending series champion Johnny Sauter was the lone man to break up the KBM party up front, timing in third-fastest (14.959/128.271) in the No. 21 Allegiant Travel Chevrolet Silverado, with Las Vegas rookie Noah Gragson (14.961/128.253) joining him on row two.
Brandon Jones completed the top five for MDM Motorsports, followed by Matt Crafton, Grant Enfinger, Cody Coughlin, Ben Rhodes and Jesse Little.
GMS Racing teammates Kaz Grala and Justin Haley were the final two drivers among the dozen that advanced through all three rounds of knockout qualifying.
While his three teammates landed in the first two rows, Harrison Burton was left on the outside looking in at the end of round two, timing in 13th in the No. 51 DEX Imaging Toyota Tundra with a lap of 15.071 seconds (127.317 mph).
Other notables eliminated in the early rounds of knockout qualifying were John Hunter Nemechek (14th), Chase Briscoe (15th), Ryan Truex (17th), Austin Cindric (18th), Landon Huffman (21st) and Austin Wayne Self (27th).
With 34 trucks on hand at Bristol for 32 starting spots, Chris Windom and Mike Senica failed to qualify for the UNOH 200.
Windom was one spot out on speed in 28th in the waning moments of round one, but smacked the wall on his final run and was unable to better his time.
The UNOH 200 is scheduled to take the green flag at 8:30 p.m. ET, live on FOX Sports 1, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
Full qualifying results can be viewed on the next page…
