LAS VEGAS – Brett Moffitt heads a GMS Racing lockout of the front row for Friday’s NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Moffitt aced the NASCAR performance matrix with a score of 1.95 to earn the pole position. He finished second in the last race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, turned the fourth-fastest lap in that race and leads the point standings coming into the race weekend.
The NASCAR metric qualifying formula factors in a driver’s lap speed ranking from the previous race, the last race finish for both driver and owner and the car’s current rank in the owner standings.
Lap speed is weighted at 15 percent, previous race finish at 25 percent for the driver and owner results and owner points position at 35 percent to calculate the final metric score.
Driver and owner playoff-eligible entries are ranked at the front of the field based on their metric scores from lowest to highest, with all non-playoff entries lined up behind the playoff cars in similar fashion.
Tyler Ankrum will join Moffitt on the front row, one of three other GMS Racing entries to make the driver playoffs this year. ThorSport Racing’s Grant Enfinger starts third alongside another GMS driver in Sheldon Creed on row two.
Kyle Busch Motorsports’ Chandler Smith rolls off fifth, his No. 51 team earning that position after having made the Truck Series owner playoffs this year.
Sixth through 11th on the grid are ThorSport Racing’s Matt Crafton, GMS Racing’s Zane Smith, ThorSport Racing’s Ben Rhodes, Kyle Busch Motorsports’ Christian Eckes, Front Row Motorsports’ Todd Gilliland and Hattori Racing Enterprises’ Austin Hill.
Tanner Gray, who was third in the series’ last race at Bristol, starts best among the non-playoff drivers in 12th. Gray’s metric score was actually sixth-best in the 36-car field.
IndyCar Series regular Conor Daly and action sports star Travis Pastrana start 27th and 29th, respectively, in rare Truck Series appearances Saturday night.
To view the complete starting lineup and metric qualifying details, click here.
Friday’s World of Westgate 200 is scheduled for a 9 p.m. ET start, with live coverage on FOX Sports 1, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.