LONG POND, Pa. - Brennan Poole has won the pole for Saturday's ARCA race at Pocono Raceway.
Poole, the third driver to attempt a lap in the qualifying session, drove a lap of 52.22 seconds (172.348 mph) to top Venturini Motorsports teammate A.J. Henriksen by 0.587 second.
The two will share the front row for tomorrow's Pennsylvania ARCA 125, which begins at 3 p.m. Poole won the last ARCA race at Pocono in June, leading 77 of 80 laps.
"I thought there were going to be a few guys that were a lot closer," Poole said, according to ARCA Racing. "Practice times were really, really close and we were actually struggling a little bit trying to get our car dialed in. The track has really changed from when we were here eight weeks ago to now. It sounds crazy to say, but it's entirely different. We kept doing what we had to do to get the car better. We made some final adjustments right before qualifying and it ended up paying off. I'm just proud of how hard my guys work. It feels good to get a pole for them."
Lebanon County's Bobby Gerhart qualified 17th with a time of 56.291, while Kyle Martel will start 24th (57.775). Carlisle's Don Thompson finished 31st. Clair Zimmerman of Denver received a provisional spot and will begin 33rd.
Points leader Chris Buescher gave Roulo Brothers Racing a car in the top three, qualifying 0.116 second behind Henriksen. Ryan Reed, another Venturini driver, qualified fourth and will join Buescher on the second row.
Chad Hackenbracht, the runner-up to Poole at Pocono in June, qualified fifth. After leading most of the lone practice before mock qualifying runs Friday afternoon, Alex Bowman qualified sixth. Bowman finished third at Pocono in June.
Poole qualified first in his first Pocono attempt last June before finishing fifth, and won from the pole just eight weeks ago. Since his last Pocono attempt, he also earned a pole at Iowa Speedway, making today's his fourth in 18 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards starts.
Venturini's Nos. 25 and 55 entries also shared the front row at Pocono in June, with Kevin Swindell driving the No. 55 alongside Poole's No. 25.
For winning the pole, the 21-year-old Texan earned 15 bonus points in the ARCA Racing Series standings and now stands just 10 points short of Buescher with seven races remaining.
Frank Kimmel qualified seventh for his 40th ARCA start at Pocono.
Some information used in this story was provided by ARCA Racing.
