Crews Nabs Rock ARCA East Pole In All-JGR Front Row

Brent Crews celebrates the General Tire Pole Award at Rockingham Speedway. (Susan Wong/ARCA Racing photo)

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. – Brent Crews led a dominant, if unsurprising, Joe Gibbs Racing front-row lockout during ARCA Menards Series East qualifying Saturday morning at Rockingham Speedway.

After leading practice to open the day, Crews turned a time-trial lap of 22.256 seconds (152.048 mph) around the .94-mile oval with the No. 81 Mobil 1 Toyota to earn his first ARCA East pole in just his second series appearance.

While it’s a breakthrough General Tire Pole Award for Crews on the ARCA East platform, it’s not his first pole in ARCA competition. He earned a national ARCA Menards Series pole in 2023 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds dirt mile and went on to victory that day, one of three career ARCA wins for the teenager.

Crews will be flanked by fellow teenage standout William Sawalich at the start of the Rockingham 125, after Sawalich posted a time of 22.392 seconds (151.125 mph) in the No. 18 Starkey Toyota.

Both JGR drivers had more than two tenths of a second over anyone else in qualifications. Crews’ lap was actually .136 seconds better than Sawalich’s in terms of the battle for the pole.

West Coast ace Tyler Reif lines up third for Sigma Performance Services (22.611/149.661), followed by Austin Green (22.636/149.496) in the familiar No. 28 for Pinnacle Racing Group.

Rev Racing’s Lanie Buice starts fifth in her ARCA debut, with Jake Finch, Patrick Staropoli, Lavar Scott, Kole Raz, and Eloy Falcon filling out the top 10 starters.

Reif enters the day as the de facto ARCA East point leader, with Max Reaves – the winner of the March season opener at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Fla. – not in attendance.

Broadcast coverage of the Rockingham 125 is slated for 1 p.m. ET on The NASCAR Channel on Tubi, FloRacing, select affiliates of the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.