Justin Lofton dashes to Truck pole at Texas Motor Speedway

Justin Lofton
photo credit Boyd Adams, courtesy of RubbingsRacing.com

Justin Lofton nabbed his second career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series pole Friday evening for the WinStar World Casino and Resort 400. 2013 series champion Matt Crafton almost caught him, running just .049 seconds behind the polewinner.

Texas Motor Speedway is a 1.5 mile speedway, so 24 drivers advance from the first round of qualifying. With only 27 entries in the field, the drivers had to do something to make knockout qualifying exciting.

Norm Benning and Jennifer Jo Cobb did their part to ramp up the tension by almost not making it to the grid. Then Darrell Wallace Jr. ran an early lap at what was probably three-quarters throttle, then waited to see if he needed to make another run. In the end, only Benning, Justin Jennings, and Ryan Ellis failed to advance.

For the second round, a pack of drivers attempted the Kevin Harvick maneuver of waiting until the literal last minute to go out. Then they blasted a quick lap, running as fast as they could to take get that last lap before the end of qualifying. The TMS track announcer said they were "running like a stabbed rat."

Those who made it through to the next round employed the same technique in the final round, with similar results.

The race broadcast begins at 8PM Central on Fox Sports 1.

Here's the starting order:

Rank	Driver	Nbr	Time	Speed
1	Justin Lofton	20	30.054	179.677
2	Matt Crafton	88	30.103	179.384
3	Ryan Blaney	29	30.229	178.636
4	Johnny Sauter	98	30.235	178.601
5	Erik Jones	51	30.239	178.577
6	Joe Nemechek	8	30.399	177.637
7	Darrell Wallace, Jr.	54	30.422	177.503
8	German Quiroga	77	30.424	177.491
9	John Wes Townley	5	30.457	177.299
10	Ron Hornaday, Jr.	30	30.523	176.916
11	Jeb Burton	13	30.535	176.846
12	Tyler Reddick	19	30.558	176.713
13	Brennan Newberry	9	30.628	176.309
14	Tayler Malsam	32	30.657	176.142
15	Timothy Peters	17	30.673	176.051
16	Bryan Silas	99	30.744	175.644
17	Tyler Young	2	30.745	175.638
18	Ben Kennedy	31	30.792	175.370
19	Joey Coulter	21	30.896	174.780
20	Mason Mingus	35	31.063	173.840
21	T.J. Bell	50	31.511	171.369
22	Jennifer Jo Cobb	10	31.766	169.993
23	Jimmy Weller III	8	31.785	169.891
24	B.J. McLeod	7		.000
25	Justin Jennings	63	32.713	165.072
26	Norm Benning	57	33.030	163.488
27	Ryan Ellis	0	33.174	162.778

 

Janine, aka Lisa or LJ, Cloud, a fifth-generation Texan, lives in Houston and considers Texas Motor Speedway her home track.

She's been a part of the Skirts and Scuffs team since May 2011, going from contributor to media rep, photographer, and associate editor covering both NASCAR and the Verizon IndyCar Series. Janine considers it a privilege to represent the site at the track and to share with readers the excitement of the world of motorsports.