Rookie Ruggiero Takes Talladega Pole; Full Love's RV Stop 225 Lineup

Gio Ruggiero, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rookie of the Year point leader, rose to the occasion at Talladega Superspeedway on Friday afternoon and captured his second career pole position, and will lead the field to green in the Love's RV Stop 225.

The 19-year-old TRICON Garage driver snagged his latest pole position with a 54.267-second (176.461 mph) lap time around the 2.66-mile superspeedway. Ruggiero clocked in ahead of second-place qualifer Ty Majeski by a razor-thin margin of 0.025 seconds.

Corey Heim, who was by far the fastest driver in the opening round of the qualifying session, was only able to muster the third-fastest lap time in the second session. Heim is locked into the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship 4 by virtue of his 10th win of the season, which came in the opening race of the Round of 8 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.

The top-10 qualifiers from Round 1 advanced to the final round of qualifying, where they battled for the pole position.

Matt Crafton, who will retire from full-time competition at the end of the season, secured a solid fourth-place starting spot behind the wheel of his No. 88 ThorSport Racing Ford F-150.

Kaden Honeycutt (Playoff contender), Luke Fenhaus, Ben Rhodes, Tyler Ankrum (Playoff Contender), Bret Holmes, and Tanner Gray rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for Friday afternoon's event at Talladega Superspeedway.

Rajah Caruth, another of the Playoff contenders, was the first driver on the outside looking in of the top-10 of the Round 1 qualifying results, which meant he was stuck with an 11th-place starting spot. Caruth will be joined in Row 6 by Dawson Sutton, a Rookie of the Year contender.

Grant Enfinger (15th), Daniel Hemric (17th), and Layne Riggs (36th) were the bottom three Playoff contenders in the qualifying session.

Riggs was deemed ineligible to turn a qualifying lap after NASCAR officials noticed his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports team making an illegal adjustment to their Ford F-150 following pre-race inspection, which took place prior to Friday's qualifying session.

The native of Bahama, NC, enters the race one point below the cutline after a frustrating start to the Round of 8 at the Charlotte Roval a couple of weeks ago.

Here is the official starting lineup for Friday afternoon's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Love's RZV Stop 225 at Talladega Superspeedway (Race 23 of 25):

(P) indicates NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoff driver
# indicates Rookie of the Year contender
(i) indicates a driver ineligible to score points