Day Snags First Career Truck Pole In Las Vegas Qualifying

Corey Day celebrates the Kennametal Pole Award Friday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. (HHP/Jim Fluharty photo)

LAS VEGAS – California hotshoe Corey Day showed off a bit of the promise expected of him as a top prospect in the garage area on Friday, earning his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series pole at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The 19-year-old from Clovis, Calif., was the final driver to turn a qualifying lap, but his lap of 30.388 seconds (177.702 mph) with the No. 7 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST was best among the 31 entrants at the 1.5-mile Sin City oval.

Day’s maiden pole position comes in just his fifth Truck Series start. It’s the latest in a young career already filled with standout moments on the dirt side for the highly touted teenager.

“Man, I’m still shaking,” said Day after his pole-winning lap. “Obviously, I haven’t had much success at this (pavement) stuff yet; it’s really been a struggle for me, so it’s really awesome to get a pole and show that I can have speed in this discipline … at least for one lap so far!

“(Crew chief) Brian Pattie definitely made my job easier on that lap by giving me a very fast truck, and now the goal is to carry this fast start into a strong finish in the race.:”

Joining Day on the front row for the Ecosave 200 is McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Tyler Ankrum, who also went out late in time trials Friday afternoon. Ankrum’s 30.405-second (177.602 mph) clip was the mark to beat until Day edged his fellow Golden State native by .017 seconds.

Still, it’s the best qualifying effort for Ankrum since a similar runner-up start at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway 13 months ago.

“You hate to lose it right at the end, but we were able to get more out of our truck in qualifying this year than we did last year, so I’m really proud of the team for that,” Ankrum noted. “MHR has worked really, really hard in the offseason to get us better and closer to where we want to be. It stinks to be that close and not come away with the pole, but I think we’ll be right in the thick of things when the pay window opens.”

ThorSport Racing’s Jake Garcia starts third (30.439/177.404) as the fastest Ford in the field, alongside NASCAR Cup Series interloper Justin Haley (30.440/177.398), driving a Spire Motorsports entry as a teammate to polesitter Day.

Stewart Friesen’s Toyota closed out the Fast Five, followed by defending Las Vegas Truck Series winner Rajah Caruth in sixth and defending Truck Series champion Ty Majeski in seventh.

Rookie-of-the-year contenders Gio Ruggiero, Dawson Sutton, and Connor Mosack closed out the top 10.

Notables starting deeper in the lineup include veterans Matt Crafton (11th) and Daniel Hemric (12th), Ben Rhodes (15th), Corey Heim (16th), Chandler Smith (17th), Grant Enfinger (20th), Kaden Honeycutt (22nd), Layne Riggs (23rd), and Frankie Muniz (29th).

With just 31 drivers entered in Sin City, no one failed to qualify for the third race of the Truck Series season.

Broadcast coverage of Friday night’s Ecosave 200 is slated for 9 p.m. ET, live on FS1, the NASCAR Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.