It hasn't taken Austin Dillon long to catch on the NASCAR Camping World Truck
Series game.
Dillon, the grandson of team owner Richard Childress, won his first Truck Series
of his career at Iowa earlier this month and has finished seventh or better in
each of his last five starts in the series.
Friday evening, Dillon showed he could get his way around Pocono Raceway as
well, as his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Silverado was the fastest truck
during the final Happy Hour round of practice for Saturday's Pocono Mountains
125 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. Dillon had a best lap of 161.461
miles per hour, putting him atop the speed charts.
Behind Dillon in the 90-minute session, came a trio of NASCAR Sprint Cup
regulars: Denny Hamlin was second at 161.415 mph in his Billy Ballew Motorsports
Toyota, followed by Kasey Kahne was third in a Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota
Dealers Tundra at 161.259 mph. Elliott Sadler, who ran 160.947 mph in the Kevin
Harvick Inc. Chevrolet Silverado sponsored by Grand Touring Vodka, was fourt
Completing the top five was Justin Lofton in the No. 7 visitpit.com Toyota with
four-time and defending NCWTS champ Ron Hornaday Jr. sixth in the KHI No. 33
Ollie's Bargain Outlet Chevrolet.
This race is the first for the Truck Series at the 2.5-mile, triangle-shaped
Pocono track, and the qualifying procedure is new as well.
Practice speeds will set the order for qualifying Saturday morning: Trucks will
qualify in inverse order to their speeds from the two practice sessions, with
the slowest trucks in practice going out first in qualifying. Up to three trucks
will be allowed on the track at any one time for their two qualifying laps.
Originally, qualifying was going to be based solely on Happy Hour speeds, but
NASCAR revised its qualifying procedures to include both sessions.
SPEED will televise Saturday's race live, starting with qualifying at 10 am ET
Race coverage on SPEED starts at 12:30 pm ET Saturday with the NASCAR Camping
World Truck Series Setup.