With a speed of 180.676 mph, Kaz Grala made history with his pole for the Camping World Truck Series’ season opener at Daytona International Speedway. It’s his first NASCAR pole.
Grala, 18, became the youngest driver to ever win a pole at Daytona in a national NASCAR series. The native of Boston, Massachusetts, is the youngest driver in the 32-car field. Ten cars failed to qualify for the race.
Grala led a 1-2-3 sweep by GMS Racing, as defending race winner Johnny Sauter (180.227) will start second with Spencer Gallagher (179.935) following in third.
Filling out the top five is Christopher Bell and Timothy Peters.
“It’s very exciting for me, but honestly I’m more excited for my guys,” Grala told Fox Sports 1. “Jerry Baxter and everybody at GMS Racing, especially on the No. 33 crew. This piece is really, really nice. It’s a bullet. This is definitely for them. The next 100 laps, that’s going to be on me. They won what they needed to do this weekend. Now it’s going to be about driver-spotter communication.”
Joe Nemechek will start ninth in his first Truck race since June 2015.
Parker Kligerman, driving the No. 75 for Henderson Motorsports, was unable to make a qualifying attempt after a “catastrophic failure in the drive line” kept him from getting up to speed in the first round of qualifying.