Jake Garcia claimed his first career Truck Series pole Friday at Rockingham Speedway. He was fastest in Craftsman Truck Series qualifying at Rockingham Speedway with a 22.050-second lap at 153.469 mph in the No. 13 ThorSport Racing Ford, putting him on the pole for Black’s Tire 250.
But that was only the beginning of what proved to be an exceptional day as Garcia led 45 laps during the race and scored a runner-up finish.
“Yeah, it was a good day,” Garcia said. “Obviously, we want to be one stop or one spot higher, but I’m proud of our guys. We brought a really fast truck to the race track”. He summed it up by saying, “strategy deal there at the end.”
“I don’t know that I really improved a whole lot driver-wise — maybe a little,” Garcia said. “But we’re running about 20 spots better every week, so this is certainly refreshing. I was getting to doubt myself a little bit there. So yeah, I’m happy to have fast trucks and glad to be at ThorSport Racing.”
Chandler Smith will join Garcia on the front row in the No.38 Ford Front Row Motorsports Ford. Ben Rhodes, Connor Mosack, and Layne Riggs completed the top five.
Smith hopes he can keep the momentum going after his recent win at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“There’s a lot less pressure heading into the weekend knowing we are locked into the Playoffs, but we want more. I think we have a good shot at the Regular Season Championship.”
Baley Currey, Kaden Honecutt, Gio Ruggiero, Ty Majeski, and Tanner Gray rounded out the top 10.
The Truck Series Black’s Tire 200 airs this evening at 5 p.m. ET with a green flag start at 5:20 p.m. on FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Starting Lineup
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