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TRUCKS: Wood Starts Up Front for Championship Finale
Written by: Kevin Krefting   
11/15/2007
Homestead, FL
 
Jon Wood captured the Bud Pole award for Friday night's season finale at Homestead (Worth Canoy/VPS Motorimages) » More Photos

Mike Skinner and Ron Hornaday Jr. will be close enough to keep an eye on each other at the start of the Ford 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, as their battle for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship goes down to the final race of the season.

Meanwhile, the entire field will have to keep an eye on Jon Wood, who took the pole position for Friday's race with the only qualifying run faster than 173 mph. Wood, who was the final driver to qualify, set a new Homestead-Miami qualifying record with a fast lap around the 1½-mile track in 31.180 seconds for an average speed of 173.188. That was good enough to beat out second-place Johnny Benson (172.872) and third-place Jacques Villeneuve (172.150).

Skinner, who holds a precarious 29-point lead over Hornaday in the standings heading into the season-finale, qualified fourth with an average speed of 172.139. Hornaday will start eighth following a qualifying run of 171.043.

The rest of the top-10 consists of Dave Blaney in fifth (171.690), Erik Darnell sixth (171.548), Kevin Harvick – the owner of Hornaday's truck – seventh (171.293), Chad McCumbee ninth (171.011) and Travis Kvapil 10th (170.967).

Joey Clanton will start 11th, making him the highest-qualifying Raybestos rookie. Kyle Busch, who has won two of the past three NCTS races, will start 14th.

Toyota is making its 100th NCTS start in the Ford 200, and it appeared the manufacturer might hold down the top four starting positions before Wood placed his Ford on the pole position. It is the first pole of the season in 11 starts for Wood, who came into this race with an average starting position of 21.8.

"I only ran one (qualifying lap) and it didn't really feel all that fast. That's what is so astonishing," said Wood, who has now won three poles in his NCTS career. "We had an awesome draw, and going out last was a huge plus. It's just optimum conditions. We had a good truck and a good draw and that's just the way it works out.

"I knew from the get-go that we had one of the dominant trucks here up to the point of qualifying. Of course, that doesn't predict what will happen in the race. But qualifying certainly demonstrated that we had our stuff together up to this point. We've had an awesome
truck all day long and hopefully it will hold up for the race as well."

Wood said he was particularly glad to gain the pole position for this race, since it is the Ford 200 and he drives a Ford.

"It's fun to come down to Ford Championship Weekend and all the fan appreciation activities," Wood said. "From the Ford executives to the Race to the Dream contest winners and everything going on. There's all this enthusiasm and excitement around Ford Racing. What better way to start off the night than to have a Ford on the pole.

"There won't be another pole sitter for the rest of the year. I will be the last pole sitter until Daytona (next year), and that's pretty cool. For the rest of the winter, I can say that I finally got my qualifying efforts together. I just want the race to follow in the footsteps of my qualifying run."

The only incident during qualifying occurred when Scott Lynch, driver of the No. 63 Ford, crashed during his second qualifying lap. Lynch was one of five drivers who failed to make the field of 36. The other drivers who are going home are Kevin Lepage, Tim Schendel, Jason White and Bryan Silas.

Craftsman Trucks on SPEED: NCTS Setup Pre-Race Show • Race Coverage • Bud Pole Qualifying • Practice Sessions
NASCAR on FoxSports.com: NASCAR Main Page • Nextel Cup Series Fox Trax • Busch Series Fox Trax
TruckSeries.com Online Coverage: Bud Pole Qualifying • TrackSideLive! Pit Notes • TruckSeries.com Main Page

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