At the end of Camping World Truck Series qualifying, it’d be Jeb Burton scoring his first career pole in his seventh career truck start. The 20-year-old lapped the track in 19.589 seconds, 96.666 mph.
“I was crying like a baby when I got out of that race car. It means a whole lot to me and my family,” said Burton, son of former Daytona 500 winner Ward Burton. “It’s really cool for my sponsor to have out of South Boston too. I worked really hard to get here. I’m really happy.
“I knew if I won or got the pole, I’m going to be emotional — anywhere, especially here. Like I said, it means something to me. I live it. I eat it. I sleep it. It’s just a passion of mine and I’m just thankful to be in front of you all right now.”
Burton broke the old track record that was held by Timothy Peters. Peters held the record previous with a lap of 19.641 seconds, 96.641 mph.
Burton will be joined on the front row by fellow rookie Darrell Wallace Jr., who is a graduate of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program.
“We just have to do our best on pit road and get the adjustments right and what the truck needs to be able to put us up front,” Wallace Jr. said. “Every track you go to pretty much is about saving tires. Hopefully, we can do that or I can do that just well enough to keep us up front. Track position is key, but you have to have your tires stay on there to have good track position. We’ll work hard to get that and we’ll see how it goes.”
Peters would qualify third for his 10th top 10 start at Martinsville Speedway.
“When my crew chief called out the lap time I was pretty blown away, but I knew there was still a bunch more good trucks to come,” Peters said. “Being that qualifying is on Friday evening I was surprised with the lap times and what they were. In the past we’ve qualified in very cool temperatures on Saturday morning where you would think there was more grip.”
Daytona winner Johnny Sauter and German Quiroga rounded out the top five.
Ty Dillon was sixth, followed by Matt Crafton, Chase Elliott, Ron Hornaday Jr. and Brennan Newberry.
The truck race will take place tomorrow afternoon at Martinsville Speedway.
