Turner Scott Motorsports driver Dylan Kwasniewski was told he needed to run the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards race tomorrow at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in order to get approved to run the DRIVE4COPD 300 next Saturday afternoon for his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut.
Kwasniewski’s heading in the right direction to receive that approval after winning the pole for Saturday afternoon’s Lucas Oil 200 presented by MAVTV American Real. Kwasniewski, the Las Vegas, Nevada native driving the No. 4 AccuDoc Solutions Chevrolet maneuvered a lap of 49.400 seconds at 182.186 miles per hour. This was Kwasniewski’s second consecutive ARCA pole. He also earned the top spot in the ARCA season finale at Kansas Speedway last October.
Grant Enfinger will lineup second, followed by Buster Graham with a career-best, Mark Thompson and Chase Elliott rounded out the top-five.
Bobby Gerhart, an eight time winner at Daytona had initially soared to the top-spot early in time trials, but the ARCA veteran’s time was disallowed after failing post qualifying technical inspection. Four other drivers would meet the same feat. Justin Boston, Spencer Gallagher, Leilani Munter and Tyler Reddick times were also pulled after failing to meet rule requirements post-qualifying.
Mason Mitchell qualified sixth ahead of Tom Hessert, Will Kimmel, defending race winner John Wes Townley and Terry Jones rounded out the top-10.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular Bryan Silas was 11th, ahead of Justin Allison, grandson of NASCAR icon Donnie Allison. Kentucky native Brian Rose netted 13th, Goshen New York’s Sean Corr claimed 14th with Martinsville Speedway president Clay Campbell rounding out the top-15 in a Ken Schrader Racing entry.
Defending ARCA champion Frank Kimmel in his new ride for Win-Tron Racing will take off from 16th, with newcomer Cole Powell in 17th, Matt Kurzejewski 18th, Jared Marks 19th and Bobby Gerhart Racing protégé driver Scott Hubler in 20th.
Jeb Burton, who will also run the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race next Friday night for ThorSport Racing landed 21st ahead of Mario Gosselin who makes his first ARCA start since 2009.
Benny Gordon, who will be a crew chief for Tanner Berryhill next weekend for the NASCAR Nationwide Series qualified his No. 11 LightinFast.com Ford Fusion 23rd. Gordon and his Wes Gonder Racing team are also raising money for the St. Jude Children’s Hospital.
Tom Buzze making his first ARCA Racing Series start since 2003 rolls off from 25th.
Scott Sheldon, the chief financial officer and senior vice president of Allegiant Air will make his ARCA Racing Series debut from the 27th starting spot. Alx Danielsson, the Storveta, Sweden native was the final machine to qualify on time and hopes to climb from his 30th starting position.
Provisional starters 31st – 40th were: Justin Boston (31st), Tyler Reddick (32nd), Leilani Munter (33rd), Thomas Praytor (34th), Maryeve Dufault (35th), Tim Viens (36th), Ed Pompa (37th), Barry Fitzgerald (38th), Dick Doheny (39th) and Gerhart will start shotgun on the field in 40th.
Gallagher’s team of GMS Racing LLC was found to have a mechanical lowering device, which prompted ARCA officials to extract his car from the entire starting field altogether, even though Gallagher had a provisional starting position available. No comment from GMS Racing Friday night.
Gerhart (driver of the No. 5) and Reddick (No. 22) had their times disallowed for rear suspension violations. The cars of Boston (No. 25) and Munter (No. 55) had their times disallowed due to coil spring mount violations.
Despite erroneous and unfounded reports distributed on social media, there were no physical altercations, nor was any ARCA participant removed from the ARCA garage during or after qualifying or the inspection process, said Ron Drager, ARCA President.
ARCA also noted that Gallagher would be eligible to start the ride qualified by Scott Sheldon in a second GMS Racing entry.
Brent Cross joined Gallagher in missing the starting lineup.
It took nearly four hours for the official starting lineup to be complete.
The Lucas Oil 200 presented by MAVTV American Real (80 laps / 200 miles) is the first of 20 events on the 2014 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards schedule. The 51st ARCA race held at Daytona is a three-day show. A forty-five minute final practice session I s etched in on Saturday, February 15 from 9:30 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. The event will take the green flag later that day shortly after 4:15 p.m. The race will be televised live on Fox Sports 1 with additional race coverage including live timing and scoring online at arcaracing.com. All times are local. ARCA, celebrating its 62nd season in 2014 is the preamble for the highly anticipated Sprint Unlimited for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) set to ignite under the lights later that night.
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