Bobby Hamilton Jr with his first Bud Pole Award of the season. (Nate Mecha/HSP)

Bobby Hamilton Jr. took the reigns of his father's No. 18 Fastenal Dodge under difficult circumstances, but so far has made the best of a bad situation by taking the pole in his first attempt for this afternoon's Kroger 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race.  Hamilton turned a track record lap of 19.895 seconds/95.180 miles per hour en route to second career NCTS pole.

"We were talking about it on the way over here, and we were going to give up on the second lap," he said.  "I gave it away on the first lap so we had to go hard on the second one.  We were a little free on the throttle which is what you need here, so I think we'll be good in the race.  That makes it two poles in the last two Martinsville spring races, so that's pretty cool.  Dad is here and he came over and gave me a big hug as soon as it was over."

While Mark Martin and Todd Bodine have had their way with the series during each of the three previous series races, and both drivers were a threat for the pole this afternoon.  Martin went out late in the session in the No. 6 Scotts Ford and turned a 19.899-second lap, good enough an outside front row start.  Bodine's 20.024-second circuit in the No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota will grid him ninth for the start.

Behind Hamilton, Jr. and Martin at the start will be Clint Bowyer, making his series debut in the No. 07 Jack Daniels Chevrolet, giving Green Light Racing its best ever series qualifying run.  Rick Crawford, a former race winner and pole winner at Martinsville, will start fourth with rookie David Ragan rounding out the top five.

Joey Miller gives team owner and 12-time Martinsville Cup winner Darrell Waltrip a top-10 start and will roll off from the sixth position, with Bill Davis Racing teammates Johnny Benson and Mike Sinner seventh and eighth respectively.  Bodine and his Germain Racing teammate Ted Musgrave will share the fifth row on the grid.

Marcos Ambrose, the Australian V-8 Supercar Series champion making his Truck Series debut here this weekend, will start 20th, while former Martinsville winner Dennis Setzer will come from 23rd.  Steve park, driving for Martinsville-based HT Motorsports, will roll from 31st on the grid.

Three drivers did not make the field in qualifying: Tam Topham, Chad Chaffin, and Justin Martz all failed to run fast enough to make the field based on qualifying speed.