DUQUOIN, Ill. – Ken Schrader became the oldest pole winner in the history of the ARCA Menards Series with his 22nd General Tire Pole Award in qualifying for Saturday’s Southern Illinois 100 on the Magic Mile at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds.
Schrader’s lap of 33.621 seconds at 107.076 mph was three hundredths of a second quicker than Christian Eckes’ fastest lap.
“I told (crew chief) Donnie (Richeson) that the car felt pretty good when I went out for qualifying,” the 64-year-old Schrader said. “I said the new tires felt a lot better than those 20 lap tires we had on in practice. He told me “well they should feel better because those tires were from last year.”
Illinoisan Kelly Kovski was third fastest at 33.747 seconds and 106.676 mph. Carson Hocevar was fourth and Springfield winner Michael Self rounded out the top-five.
Will Kimmel, Riley Herbst, Bret Holmes, Ryan Unzicker and defending event winner Logan Seavey rounded out the top-10 in qualifying.