Tanner Gray was the final car to take a lap in General Tire Pole Qualifying for tonight’s ARCA Kansas 150 and he saved the best for last as he knocked Michael Self off the top of the leaderboard. For Gray (No. 54 Gray Motorsports/Valvoline/Durst, Inc. Toyota) it was his first career General Tire Pole Award and for Self, getting bumped off the pole means a loss of five bonus points that go to the pole winner.
Gray turned a lap at 29.941 seconds/180.355 miles per hour. He was the only driver to exceed 180 miles per hour in qualifying. Self’s lap was less than a tenth of a second slower, 30.014 seconds/179.916 miles per hour.
“The car was great and the track is in really good condition,” Gray said. “I tried to hold it wide open in practice and it didn’t work. I tried it in qualifying and it worked.”
Gray will start from the pole and would like to be well out in front of the field, with minimal impact on the battle for the championship. Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota), who will start second, is fifteen points behind his Venturini Motorsports teammate Christian Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota). Eckes qualified eleventh.
“We definitely don’t want to be involved in the championship battle at all,” Gray said. “We aren’t here racing for points. We’re here to win. I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with this type of racing over the course of the season. I think we’ll have a great shot at the win.”
Three-time winner Ty Majeski (No. 22 Crestliner Ford) will start third with a lap at 30.060 seconds/179.641 miles per hour, Riley Herbst (No. 18 Monster Energy/ORCA Coolers/Terrible Herbst/Advance Auto Parts Toyota) was qualified fourth at 30.111 seconds/179.336 miles per hour, and Drew Dollar (No. 4 Dollar Concrete Construction Toyota), who was fastest in practice, was fifth at 30.510 seconds/176.991 miles per hour.
Bret Holmes (No. 23 Southern States Bank Chevrolet), who is third in the championship standings, qualified sixth, Daytona winner Harrison Burton (No. 20 RUUD Toyota) was seventh, defending series champion and defending race winner Sheldon Creed (No. 28 Chevy Accessories Chevrolet) was eighth, Gus Dean (No. 32 Win-Tron Racing Chevrolet) was ninth, and Travis Braden (No. 27 MatrixCare/Consonus Health Care/Liberty Village Ford) rounded out the top ten.
The ARCA Kansas 150 is slated for an 8:30 pm ET green flag and will be shown live on MAVTV. The race will also be live streamed for free on NASCAR.com. ARCA for Me members can follow with live timing & scoring and live track updates at ARCARacing.com.
ARCA PR
