TRUCKS: Dillon Wins Pole For Daytona Opener

Austin Dillon is looking for his second Camping World Truck Series opener at Daytona International Speedway to have a much more pleasant start than last year’s first run.

Dillon crashed on the first lap of last season’s race while racing in a tight group at the front.

He’ll be in the same neighborhood Friday night at the start of the NextEra Energy Resources 250. Dillon won the pole for the Camping World Truck opener Thursday night with a fast lap of 179.047 miles per hour, leading a qualifying round of 45 trucks.

Dillon was the only driver above the 179 mark during the evening session. He won seven poles as a rookie last season and is considered to be among the championship favorites this year.

“Last year I had to worry about how the truck handled,” Dillon said. “I feel way more comfortable than last year. Last year I felt like I was weaving in the draft. Now I’m way more confident. We’ve still got to go out there and run all the laps, but I feel like we can win the race.”

Second was James Buescher, who ran 178.423 mph.

Ron Hornaday Jr. (178.158), Nelson Piquet Jr. (177.901) and Ricky Carmichael (177.816), followed in the top five, but the starting order was shuffled by infractions discovered in post-qualifying inspection.

Piquet will move to the rear of the field, along with Aric Almirola. Piquet’s truck was found to be too low in the roof measurement, and Almirola was too low in the rear of the vehicle. Almirola had qualified 26th.

Friday’s race, which will be televised by SPEED, is scheduled for 7 p.m.

The trucks will benefit from the recently repaved track surface.

“Tires are not going to be a problem on the new surface,” Hornaday said. “It’s just going to be getting behind somebody and hanging on.”

The 7 p.m. race will be televised by SPEED.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including “NASCAR: The Definitive History of America’s Sport” and “Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told”. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.