Matt Crafton, coming off a top-ten finish in his first-ever Craftsman Truck event at Fontana, beat the time of NASCAR Winston Cup regular, Ken Schrader, to seize the pole for the Albertsons/Osco Drug 125.
Crafton driving the No. 46 Smart & Final/Bushrod's Barbecue Sauce Taurus conquered the one-mile oval in 27.456 seconds with a blistering speed of 131.119 mph a near record. The race is the final event in the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Touring Series.
Schrader will start on the outside pole with Northwest Series champion, Gary Lewis starting third and Chris Hart, another Northwest Touring Series regular starting to his outside .
Provisional starting spots went to eight drivers, including two drivers that had won races this year. Taking provisionals were Doug McCoun in the No. 34 Wynn's Monte Carlo, Sean Woodside (Mesa Marin Winner) in the No. 4 SW Tenant Development Grand Prix, Rocky Nash (Irwindale Winner) in the No. 88 Hendricks Honda-Corona Monte Carlo, rookie Todd Souza in the No. 6 Dunlop Golf Taurus, Kevin Hamlin (Northwest Tour) in the 38 American Dream / Bowman's Electro Painting Monte Carlo, No. 1 Ron Eaton (Northwest Tour, often resides in Arizona), Kenny Shepherd in his No. 9 InsideLines Monte Carlo and finally the No. 71 Elite Intl. Production Monte Carlo piloted by Greg Fowler.
The top-ten qualifiers were a mixed bunch, with four Southwest Series regulars, four Northwest Series regulars and two former race winners at PIR, Ken Schrader and Scott Hansen.
A twenty-lap consy will be run this afternoon to determine the final four of 42 starting positions. Competing in the last-chance event will be:
1 No. Mike Snow
2 No. 03 Jim Pettitt II
3 No. 06 Ed Belec
4 No. 22 John Dillon
5 No. 96 Greg Anderson
6 No. 31 Randy Hvall
7 No. 43 Ross Thompson
8 No. 41 Jeff Hillock
9 No. 25 Russell Butler
10 No. 27 Roger Avants
11 No. 54 Paul Banghart
12 No. 0 Doug Elliott
13 No. 77 Gary Porter
14 No. 61 Mike Ledbetter
15 No. 67 Scott Gaylord
16 No. 33 Keith Mayberry
17 No. 3 Harry Brady
18 No. 00 Kenny Kinchen
19 No. 24 Vince Little
20 No. 40 Rick Suran
21 No. 07 Kevin Clark
22 No. 57 Tim Woods
Weather conditions for tomorrow's race call for mostly cloudy skies with a high of 71 degrees.
