Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota) will start from the pole in tonight’s ARCA Menards Series General Tire 150 at Charlotte Motor Speedway after turning a lap of 29.686 seconds/181.904 miles per hour in General Tire Pole Qualifying. Self also won the GT Pole Award at the last series race at Toledo Speedway.
“I have won four poles in something like 100 career stock car starts and two of them have been the last two weeks so maybe I am figuring this qualifying thing out,” Self said. “I actually thought I left a lot on the table on that lap. I came on the radio and apologized to my guys and they came back and said ‘why are you saying you’re sorry you’re the fastest one so far’.”
Self is a two-time winner so far in 2019, with wins at Five Flags and Salem, and leads the series standings by 30 points over Travis Braden (No. 27 MatrixCare/Consonus Health Care/Liberty Village Ford). Braden will start from the 14th position after a lap of 31.176 seconds/173.21 miles per hour.
Defending NHRA Mello Yello NHRA Drag Racing Series Pro Stock champion Tanner Gray (No. 54 Durst/Valvoline Toyota) will start alongside Self on the front row after a lap of 29.802 seconds/181.196 miles per hour. Gray scored his first career NASCAR K&N Pro Series East win two weeks ago at South Boston Speedway.
Daytona winner Harrison Burton (No. 20 Fields/Sports Force Parks Toyota) qualified third at 29.855 seconds/180.874 miles per hour, Codie Rohrbaugh (No. 7 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet) qualified a career-best fourth at 29.864 seconds/180.820 miles per hour, and Nashville winner Christian Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota) qualified fifth at 29.916 seconds/180.505 miles per hour.
Bret Holmes (No. 23 Holmes II Excavation Chevrolet), defending series champion Sheldon Creed (No. 21 Chevy Accessories Chevrolet), Ty Majeski (No. 22 Crestline Ford), Riley Herbst (No. 18 Monster Energy/ORCA Coolers/Terrible Herbst/Advance Auto Parts Toyota), and Joe Graf, Jr. (No. 77 EAT SLEEP RACE Ford) rounded out the top ten qualifiers.
The twenty-minute timed session was interrupted twice by accidents, first involving Willie Mullins (No. 3 Crow Wing Recycling Ford) and then moments after the session resumed by C.J. McLaughlin (No. 09 SciAps Chevrolet). Both teams are attempting to make repairs in time for the start of the race.
The green flag will wave over the General Tire 150 field tonight at 9 pm ET. The race will be live on FS1, while ARCARacing.com will have live timing & scoring, live track updates, and live chat throughout all on-track activity free for ARCA for Me members. New users can register for free with a valid email address at ARCARacing.com/login.
