Tyler Reddick won the 21 Means 21 Pole Award Friday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway in his Brad Keselowski Racing No. 19 Ford, with a fast lap of 186.827 mph. It is Reddick’s first career pole in 13 starts in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
“It means a lot to get a pole in my rookie year,” Reddick said. “It’s great to start up front, especially at Talladega.”
The 18-year-old Reddick will be joined on the first row by Tayler Malsam in his No. 32 Chevrolet, in second place. This is Malsam’s best starting position in 49 truck series races. Matt Crafton, who currently leads the points standings, will start third followed by Johnny Sauter and Ryan Blaney to round out the top five.
Malsam spoke about the revamped qualifying procedure saying, “The format’s crazy, you have to really hustle around the apron, which makes it a lot different from most of the racetracks.” He continued, “It adds a lot of excitement for the fans.”
Friday’s qualifying featured the new accelerated format for restrictor-plate tracks. The first session consisted of two groups, each with only five minutes to make qualifying laps. Mason Mingus was fastest overall in the first session.
Erik Jones led the second session with the fastest qualifying lap in the history of the Truck Series, 191.161 mph.
Darrell Wallace Jr., fourth in the series standings, had a disappointing qualifying effort and will begin the race in the 27th position. It is the worst starting position of his career. Milka Duno did not qualify after an engine failure in practice Friday.
Reddick will lead the field to green Saturday for the Fred’s 250 Powered by Coca-Cola. The race will be televised on FOX at 1 p.m. ET.
Complete Starting Lineup:
| POS. | CAR | DRIVER |
| 1 | 19 | Tyler Reddick |
| 2 | 32 | Tayler Malsam |
| 3 | 88 | Matt Crafton |
| 4 | 98 | Johnny Sauter |
| 5 | 29 | Ryan Blaney |
| 6 | 51 | Erik Jones |
| 7 | 13 | Jeb Burton |
| 8 | 8 | Joe Nemechek |
| 9 | 5 | John Wes Townley |
| 10 | 15 | Mason Mingus |
| 11 | 84 | Chris Fontaine |
| 12 | 77 | German Quiroga Jr |
| 13 | 31 | Ben Kennedy |
| 14 | 9 | Ron Hornaday Jr |
| 15 | 20 | Brennan Newberry |
| 16 | 21 | Joey Coulter |
| 17 | 35 | Daniel Suarez |
| 18 | 8 | Jimmy Weller III |
| 19 | 99 | Bryan Silas |
| 20 | 68 | Clay Greenfield |
| 21 | 23 | Spencer Gallagher |
| 22 | 39 | Ryan Sieg |
| 23 | 6 | Norm Benning |
| 24 | 10 | Jennifer Jo Cobb |
| 25 | 2 | Tyler Young |
| 26 | 17 | Timothy Peters |
| 27 | 54 | Darrell Wallace Jr |
| 28 | 28 | Ryan Ellis |
| 29 | 7 | Korbin Forrister |
| 30 | 63 | Scott Stenzel |
| 31 | 5 | Cody Ware |
| 32 | 50 | Derek White |
| 33 | 3 | Michael Affarano |
| 34 | 36 | Justin Jennings |
| 35 | 74 | Mike Harmon |
| 36 | 1 | Milka Duno |
