Matt Crafton, No. 88 Menards Chevrolet Silverado, captured his career first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series pole position with a record-shattering lap of 29.567 seconds, 128.819 mph around the 1.058-mile New Hampshire International Speedway.  The 29-year old Tulare, CA native's previous best starting spot was second at Homestead Miami Speedway in November 2004.

Crafton's effort for this afternoon's Sylvania 200 Presented by Lowe's is the seventh number one starting position for Chevrolet Silverado thus far in the 2005 NCTS season.

Crafton went out for his qualifying run 31st in the order of the 38 trucks attempting to qualify for the 36-truck starting field.  His second lap was his fastest and eclipsed the record of 29.637 seconds, 128.515 mph set in September 2004 by fellow Silverado driver, Jack Sprague.

Matt Crafton, No. 88 Menards Silverado, Qualified 1st
"To break the track record by just less than a second is pretty awesome.  I am so happy for my guys; hopefully we will get our first win here soon.  Brandon Whitt did that earlier, got his first pole and then went on to win his first race. So if we are running second on the last lap, the winner better watch out (said in jest, laughs).

"We have a real good truck. We honestly thought we did have a shot at the pole, as long as I didn't make any mistakes.  I have a tendency to overdrive it a little when I qualify.   These guys have been on me and on me this year to break that habit.

"I have had a lot of poles before in late models and NASCAR Southwest Tour and finally it looks like I learned to qualify again.  Hopefully we can finish off these last races of the season and get us a couple more poles.

"The advantage of starting on the pole at New Hampshire is track position.  Track position is key here.  We qualified really bad here but had a good shot of winning the race because we were able to make up some track position.  I have always raced really good here at New Hampshire, but just not qualified well so well here and started in the hole.

"Everywhere we run, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is so tough and track position is so critical.  I am really happy for these guys at ThorSport, Menards and Chevrolet, they have always been behind me especially the last two years a bunch.  I really appreciate it."

NCTS championship points leader Dennis Setzer will start the No. 46 Chevrolet Silverado on the outside of row three in the sixth starting spot.   The Newton, NC native has one win, four top-five and five top-10 finishes at NHIS.

Other Silverado Qualifiers:
David Starr, No. 75 Spears Manufacturing Silverado, Qualified 9th
Aric Almirola, No. 47 FedEx Kinko's Chevrolet Silverado, Qualified 15th
Kyle Busch, No. 15 Ditech.com Silverado, Qualified 16th
Ron Hornaday, No. 6 GM Goodwrench Silverado, Qualified 17th
Ken Schrader, No. 52 Federated Auto Parts Silverado, Qualified 20th
Tracy Hines, No. 13 Thorsport/Dave Zoriki Silverado, Qualified 23rd
Kelly Sutton,  No. 02 Team Copaxone Silverado, Qualified 27th
Jack Sprague, No. 16 Chevy Trucks Silverado, Qualified 31st
Jose Luis Ramirez, No. 08 Pro30.com Silverado, Qualified 32nd
Jack Bailey, No. 07 Century 21 Silverado, Qualified 33rd
Wayne Edwards, No. 24 PMI Heating and Air Conditioning Silverado, Qualified 36th