Garcia’s Third Truck Pole Sets A Milestone For ThorSport

Jake Garcia took the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series pole at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Scotte Sprinkle/Motorsports Hotspot photo)

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Jake Garcia achieved a milestone for ThorSport Racing in Kennametal Pole Qualifying Thursday evening for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Garcia roared to the top spot for the UNOH 250 presented by Ohio Logistics at Bristol Motor Speedway, turning a track-record lap of 15.249 seconds (125.831 mph) in the No. 13 Quanta Services Ford F-150.

It marked the 50th career Truck Series pole for the organization owned by Duke and Rhonda Thorson, as well as the third pole for Garcia in his 70th Truck Series start.

All three poles have come this season for the 20-year-old from Monroe, Ga.

“This is definitely a good time to get our third pole of the year,” said Garcia, a Truck Series playoff contender. “I’m really proud of the effort by my entire crew. We started practice really far off, but made a bunch of runs and adjusted each time to make the truck better and better, and eventually we even got on the other side of the handling where I wanted us to be.

“Huge effort to get the truck better to allow me to turn a great lap, and now the goal is to keep it up there and go after the win to lock ourselves into the next round.”

Joining Garcia on the front row is year-long dominator and regular season champion Corey Heim, whose TRICON Garage-prepared Toyota Tundra TRD Pro toured Bristol’s concrete high banks in 15.291 seconds (125.486 mph) as the final truck to take time.

Heim is seeking his record-tying ninth Truck Series win of the year and fourth in a row Thursday night.

McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Tyler Ankrum and interim Halmar Friesen Racing driver Kaden Honeycutt line up on row two, with dirt ace Corey Day and defending series champion Ty Majeski starting fifth and sixth, respectively.

Front Row Motorsports’ Layne Riggs and Chandler Smith, CR7 Motorsports’ Grant Enfinger, Spire Motorsports’ Rajah Caruth, and MHR’s Daniel Hemric complete the top 11 starters, with all 10 championship-eligible drivers landing among that group.

Notables deeper in the field include rookies Dawson Sutton (12th), Gio Ruggiero (14th), and Andres Perez de Lara (17th), as well as past Truck Series champions Ben Rhodes (20th) and Matt Crafton (21st).

With 37 trucks entered for 36 starting spots, owner-driver Clay Greenfield failed to qualify.

Broadcast coverage of the UNOH 250 presented by Ohio Logistics is set for 8 p.m. ET, live on FS1, the NASCAR Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.