FORT WORTH, Texas (November 5, 2009) – Matt Crafton (No. 88 Menards/McGuire-Nicholas Chevrolet) posted a lap of 179.354 miles per hour to capture the pole position at Thursday’s 7-Eleven Qualifying Day for the WinStar World Casino 350k NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.

The pole was Crafton’s second of the year and third of his career, with his previous ones coming at New Hampshire in 2005 and earlier this season at Chicagoland. Crafton’s previous-best qualifying effort at Texas Motor Speedway was third in June’s WinStar World Casino 400.

Todd Bodine (No. 30 Copart/PurpleHeartCars.org Toyota), a record five-time truck series winner at Texas Motor Speedway, qualified on the outside pole with a lap of 178.235 mph. Rounding out the top five were Chad McCumbee (No. 07 tiwi/Valvoline Chevrolet) at 178.212 mph, points leader and defending race champion Ron Hornaday Jr. (No. 33 VFW Chevrolet) at 178.183 mph and David Gilliland (No. 98 Menards Chevrolet) at 178.083, respectively.

Rookie James Buescher (No. 10 International MAXXFORCE Diesel Ford), of Plano, qualified 10th with a lap of 177.288 mph to pace the trio of Texans competing in the WinStar World Casino 350k. David Starr (No. 24 Zachry Toyota), a Houston native who lives in Fort Worth, qualified 16th at 176.327 mph and Colin Braun (No. 6 Con-way Freight/True LTL Ford), of Ovalo, was 19th at 176.131 mph.

The 36-truck field for the WinStar World Casino 350k will take the green flag at 8 p.m. CT Friday for the 147-lap, 220.5-mile lap race. Tickets remain and are available by calling the Texas Motor Speedway ticket office at (817) 215-8500 or by visiting www.texasmotorspeedway.com.