DOVER, Del. — Taking some added motivation from his grandfather, who is undergoing open-heart surgery today, Chase Briscoe scored his first-career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series pole during qualifying at Dover Int’l Speedway.
Briscoe completed a Brad Keselowski Racing sweep of the three knockout rounds on Friday, leading rounds one and three and earning the pole with a lap of 23.007 seconds (156.474 mph) in the final, five-minute session.
“This is huge,” Briscoe said after climbing from his No. 29 Cooper Standard F-150. “We were struggling here during the first practice yesterday, but (crew chief Mike) Hillman (Jr.) and all the guys worked hard, as they always do, and we ended up getting the pole.”
“It’s really special … especially with everything going on with my grandpa. I’m sure when he wakes up, he’ll be really excited.”
A pair of Toyota Tundras trailed Briscoe in the final round, led by home favorite Ryan Truex, who scored his best-career Truck starting spot in second with a lap of 23.015 seconds (156.420 mph).
Atlanta winner Christopher Bell will roll off third in the No. 4 JBL Audio Toyota after a clip of 23.025 seconds (156.352 mph), leading a four-truck Kyle Busch Motorsports assault on the Monster Mile.
Briscoe’s BKR teammate Austin Cindric, who led the second knockout round, qualified fourth on his final run ahead of NASCAR Next alum Jesse Little.
Ben Rhodes, Parker Kligerman and practice leader Noah Gragson were sixth through eighth, respectively, followed by Ross Chastain, whose Bolen Motorsports No. 66 shocked many as the best Chevrolet in ninth.
Rookie Harrison Burton, defending series champion Johnny Sauter and Grant Enfinger completed the dozen drivers who advanced through all three rounds of qualifying.
Two-time Truck Series champion Matt Crafton was out, then in, then out again in the final moments of the second knockout round, but ultimately fell short of the top 12 and will start 13th after a best lap of 23.232 seconds (154.959 mph) in his No. 88 Menards Toyota.
Crafton is the defending winner of the Bar Harbor 200, having led 76 of 200 laps en route to the 12th of his 13 career series victories one season ago.
“We didn’t do any qualifying runs yesterday, and I guess it bit us today,” Crafton admitted. “We were just way too free on landing at both ends. We’ll keep tuning on it, though. We were pretty happy with our truck in race trim, so don’t worry … we’ll be alright.”
Other notables eliminated in round two included Todd Gilliland (15th), who is making his series debut in a fourth Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota; Daytona winner Kaz Grala (16th); John Hunter Nemechek (20th) and Justin Haley (21st), who battled radiator issues throughout Thursday’s practice session.
Matt Mills was the first truck eliminated in the opening knockout round, posting a time of 24.853 seconds (144.852) and missing the cut to advance by .008 of a second.
Briscoe led that opening round over Parker Kligerman, with a time of 22.886 seconds (157.301 mph) marking the fastest overall lap of qualifying.
The Bar Harbor 200 will take the green flag at 5 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…
