Long Pond, Penn. – Scott Speed earned his third career ARCA SIM Factory pole award at Pocono Raceway ripping off a 54.286 second lap in his No. 2 Red Bull Toyota. Speed has dominated in recent weeks with back to back ARCA RE/MAX Series wins at Kentucky Speedway and Berlin Raceway. Eddie Sharp Racing teammates Justin Lofton and Ken Butler, III will start Saturday’s Pennsylvania 200 in the ninth and 19th-place positions, respectively.
“We unloaded great today,” said Speed. “I honestly don’t feel any pressure or anything like that right now. We’ve gotten ourselves into a few situations that really weren’t our fault and they have affected the points but you can’t let that get to you. We didn’t really make a lot of changes or in practice. I took what I remembered in June and applied it today. We should be real good in the race tomorrow.”
The Eddie Sharp Racing team of Lofton, KB3, and Speed return to Pocono for only their second visit with a little more experience under their belts. Speed earned his first career pole position at the Pocono 200 in June. Since that race, Speed has two more poles and two wins. Lofton has also racked up a pole and a win.
KBIII was the first of the ESR cars to qualify and turned in a 55.754 second lap that would put the No. 22 Aaron’s Lucky Dog Toyota 19th in the starting lineup for Sunday’s race. Speed followed in the No. 2 Red Bull Toyota and turned in a 54.286 second lap to put him in the first position. Lofton rounded out the group with his 163.991 mph (54.881 s) lap to start ninth.
“We had a really good car today in practice” commented Lofton. “We just got a little tight during qualifying. I think we will definitely have a competitive car. We’ll start ninth tomorrow and just work our way to the front.”
| 
|