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Connor Zilisch Secures Bristol Truck Pole

The 18-year old Connor Zilisch continued his hot streak in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series qualifying on Thursday (Sept. 19) at Bristol Motor Speedway by claiming pole position.

Zilisch, driving for Spire Motorsports in the No. 7 Chevy, was a full tenth of a second ahead of the runner-up with a lap time of 125.207 mph. Zilisch also claimed the pole in ARCA Menards Series qualifying in his first double-duty effort.

Corey Heim secured his fifth front row start of the season, starting alongside Zilisch in second. Rajah Caruth, who enters the second race of the playoffs four points below the cutline, will start third with William Sawalich in fourth.

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Stewart Friesen in fifth and Nick Sanchez in sixth make up row three. Playoff drivers Daniel Dye and Christian Eckes, who won the spring Bristol race, will start seventh and eighth. Chase Purdy and Tanner Gray make up the rest of the top-10 starters.

Tyler Ankrum will start 14th with fellow playoff contenders Grant Enfinger (15th) and Taylor Gray (16th) in tow. 

Both ThorSport Racing playoff drivers struggled in qualifying. Ty Majeski is set to roll off 19th while defending champion Ben Rhodes starts 25th.

Kaden Honeycutt did not post a qualifying lap due to a mechanical failure. He’ll go to a backup truck and start in the rear of the 36-car field. Justin Carroll and Marco Andretti failed to qualify for the 200-lap event.

Truck Starting Lineup for Bristol

The UNOH 200 Presented by Ohio Logistic is set to begin at 7 p.m. ET. TV coverage of the race will be on FOX Sports 1.

About the author

James Krause joined Frontstretch in March 2024 as a contributor. Krause was born and raised in Illinois and graduated from Northern Illinois University. He currently works in La Crosse, Wisconsin as a local sports reporter, including local short track racing. Outside of racing, Krause loves to keep up with of football, music, anime and video games.

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