Ryan Blaney Grabs His First Career NCWTS Pole at Kentucky

        With a time of 30.829 seconds (175.160 mph), Ryan Blaney grabbed his first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series pole at Kentucky. Blaney grabbed the pole and had to hold off laps from Darrell Wallace Jr., John Wes Townley, Joey Coulter, and others to win it. It wasn't easy, but he was successful. The session was one with a lot of ups and downs for drivers. Many of the drivers got loose in the corners. Some held on, but others could not save their trucks and made contact with the wall. All in all, it was an exciting session with constant action and drivers sliding all around the track looking for speed.

        Chris Lafferty was the first driver on the track. He went out on the track, but did not finish his lap. He is still locked in the field since only 36 trucks attempted to qualify. Chris Jones was the next driver to have some trouble. On his warm up lap, he got loose coming out of turn 4 and went for a slide down the frontstretch grass. He saved his truck and decided not to complete a lap since his tires were probably flat spotted. Once again, he is looked in the field due to only 36 trucks attempting to qualify. Brett Moffitt, who is making his NCWTS debut, would be the next driver to have trouble. On his first lap, he got loose coming out of turn 2 and slammed the outside wall. The damage was too much to fix and he had to resort to a back-up truck. The next driver made a great save. Ty Dillon got extremely loose coming out of turn 2 on his first lap. Somehow, he saved the truck and was able to run a good lap, but it was way slower than the pole speed. The pole had switched back and forth between most drivers until Ryan Blaney, the eventual polesitter, grabbed it. He held it by outlasting runs from Darrell Wallace Jr., John Wes Townley, Joey Coulter, and others. The last driver out was Cale Gale, who had a legitimate shot for the pole. He went out on the track and took the green flag. He got loose coming out of turn 2 on his first lap and saved it, but his chance for a pole were lost. With that, Ryan Blaney had the pole for tonight's race at Kentucky.

        It was a hard fought pole for Blaney. After a win at Iowa last year, he looked to grab his first pole and he was able to do that today. One thing to look for in the race is the amount of contenders starting at the back of the field. Ty Dillon and Johnny Sauter start outside the top 15, Brad Keselowski and James Buescher start outside the top 10, and Kyle Busch and Matt Crafton start outside the top 5. Another thing to look for is the amount of youngsters near the front. Ryan Blaney and Darrell Wallace Jr. are both nineteen years old and John Wes Townley is only 23 years old. These three drivers start in the top 3 spots for the race. It will be interesting to see if one of these young guys will win with all the veteran drivers in the field and if some contenders can make their way from the back. The race will be a Thursday night shootout and should be one of the best of the season. Make sure you guys turn on SPEED tonight for the race.
(More Stats Down Below!)




Top 5 Qualifiers (With Times):
1st: Ryan Blaney    30.829 (175.160 mph)
2nd: Darrell Wallace Jr.    30.844 (175.075 mph)
3rd: John Wes Townley    30.922 (174.633 mph)
4th: Brendan Gaughan    30.924 (174.622 mph)
5th: Joey Coulter    30.971 (174.357 mph)

Notables Not in Top 5 (With Times):
6th: Kyle Busch    31.104 (173.611 mph)
7th: Matt Crafton    31.119 (173.527 mph)
12th: Brad Keselowski     31.210 (173.021 mph)
13th: James Buescher    31.232 (172.900 mph)    
17th: Johnny Sauter     31.530 (171.265 mph)
22nd: Ty Dillon     31.901 (169.274 mph)

DNQs: None




Credits:
-My Own Notes
-Statistics:
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/camping-world-truck-series/leaderboard/leaderboard-qualification.html
-Image:
https://twitter.com/NASCAR_Trucks/status/350386674682957824/photo/1