Taylor Gray won the pole for Monday’s Jeep Beach 175 at New Smyrna Speedway, piloting the No. 17 Ford Performance Ford with owner David Gilliland. Gray, from North Carolina, secured his second career front row start across the East and West division at the 0.480-mile oval with a time of 18.768s / 92.072 mph.
Earlier in the day in final practice, Gray sat third quickest on the leaderboard behind practice leader Sammy Smith. Smith, piloting the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, will start ninth while second quickest Parker Retzlaff will start sixth.
Max Gutierrez will start beside Gray in the No. 30 Tough Built Ford. The Mexico City native will make his fourth career start across the East and West divisions. The 18-year old sat sixth fastest in the one and only practice.
Joey Iest will round out the top three starters in Monday’s East season opener. Iest enters the night making his first career appearance in the ARCA Menards Series East with four starts in the West division in 2020. Iest sat fourth fastest in final practice.
Jack Wood and Mason Diaz will round out the top five starters.
Chuck Buchanan crashed hard into turn one after completing his first of two laps.
The Jeep Beach 175 will air live on TrackPass NBC Sports Gold at 7:30 p.m. ET.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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