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 (35th) 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):

Pos	Truck	Driver	Lap time	Speed
1	98	Ty Majeski (P)	54.267	176.461
2	17	Gio Ruggiero #	54.292	176.380
3	11	Corey Heim (P)	54.308	176.330
4	88	Matt Crafton	54.353	176.182
5	52	Kaden Honeycutt (P)	54.412	175.991
6	66	Luke Fenhaus	54.444	175.887
7	99	Ben Rhodes	54.455	175.852
8	18	Tyler Ankrum (P)	54.486	175.752
9	1	Bret Holmes	54.536	175.590
10	15	Tanner Gray	54.556	175.526
11	71	Rajah Caruth (P)	54.709	175.035
12	26	Dawson Sutton #	54.715	175.016
13	16	Kris Wright (i)	54.757	174.882
14	81	Connor Mosack #	54.776	174.821
15	9	Grant Enfinger (P)	54.785	174.792
16	7	JJ Yeley (i)	54.787	174.786
17	19	Daniel Hemric (P)	54.849	174.588
18	77	Corey LaJoie	54.897	174.436
19	76	Spencer Boyd	54.932	174.325
20	45	Bayley Currey	55.045	173.967
21	75	Parker Kligerman	55.086	173.837
22	44	Andres Perez de Lara #	55.096	173.806
23	42	Matt Mills	55.111	173.758
24	91	Jack Wood	55.117	173.729
25	38	Chandler Smith	55.120	173.730
26	13	Jake Garcia	55.214	173.434
27	69	Tyler Tomassi (i)	55.223	173.406
28	33	Frankie Muniz #	55.253	173.212
29	2	Josh Reaume	55.275	173.243
30	5	Tony Breidinger #	55.363	172.968
31	02	Nathan Byrd	55.387	172.893
32	6	Norm Benning	55.457	172.674
33	22	Jason White	55.935	171.199
34	35	Greg Van Alst	56.218	170.337
35	34	Layne Riggs (P)	0.000	0.000
36	74	Caleb Costner	0.000	0.000

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

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