Todd Gilliland Speeds to ARCA Menards Series General Tire Pole Award in Qualifying for FORTS USA 150 at Pocono Raceway

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After leading the 90-minute practice session earlier in the day, Todd Gilliland (No. 18 Frontline Enterprises Toyota) earned his first General Tire Pole Award if 2019 in qualifying for the ARCA Menards Series FORTS USA 150 at Pocono Raceway.

Gilliland, substituting for Joe Gibbs Racing as the team’s usual superspeedway driver Riley Herbst participates in the NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Iowa Speedway, turned a fast lap of 52.255 seconds/172.232 miles per hour. Gilliland’s lap was two tenths of a second quicker than Christian Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota), who qualified second with a lap of 52.241 seconds/171.589 miles per hour.

“That wasn’t a comfortable lap at all,” Gilliland said after qualifying. “It’s really loose out there. The traction compound is going to help a lot of drivers who get up out of the groove but my plan is to keep it down on the inside. It’s a lot shorter down there.”

Chandler Smith (No. 20 Craftsman/828 Logistics Toyota), making his first attempt at the 2.5-mile triangular layout, qualified third at 52.486 seconds/171.474 miles per hour. Smith enters the FORTS USA 150 with a two-race win streak and wins in four of his previous five starts. ARCA Menards Series championship leader Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota) qualified fourth at 53.388 seconds/168.577 miles per hour and Corey Heim (No. 22 Speedway Children’s Charities Ford) rounded out the top five in qualifying with a 53.388 second/168.114 mile per hour lap.

Raphael Lessard (No. 28 GMPartsNow.com Chevrolet) qualified sixth after a transmission failure in practice. Austin Wayne Self (No. 32 Win Tron Racing Chevrolet), Travis Braden (No. 27 MatrixCare/Consonus Health Care/Liberty Village Ford), Bret Holmes (No. 23 Holmes II Excavation Chevrolet) and Joe Graf, Jr. (No. 22 EAT SLEEP RACE Chevrolet) rounded out the top ten qualifers.

The twenty-minute timed session was slowed in the early moments for an incident involving Don Thompson (No. 0 GreatRailing.com Chevrolet). Thompson made contact with the retaining wall exiting turn one and came to a stop down the backstretch. The car suffered damage and Thompson was evaluated and released from the infield care center.

The FORTS USA 150 is scheduled for a 4 pm ET green flag and will be televised live flag-to-flag on FS1. ARCA for Me members can access live timing & scoring, live chat, and live track updates at ARCARacing.com. New users can register for free with a valid email address at ARCARacing.com/login.

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