(Sports Network) - Bobby East became a first-time pole winner in the NASCAR (web|news) Craftsman Truck Series, taking the top starting spot in Friday's qualifying for the Power Stroke Diesel 200 at the O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. The No.09 Roush Fenway Racing Ford driver circled the 0.686-mile oval in 22.740 seconds (108.602 m.p.h.). East recorded his first career pole in his 29th start.

He won last night's USAC Silver Crown race at ORP, leading all 100 laps.

Starting on the front row with East will be Jack Sprague, who posted a time of 22.760 seconds.

Erik Darnell (22.773) and defending series champion Ron Hornaday, Jr. (22.799) will make up row two.

Hornaday also won this race last year. Hornaday led 90 of 201 laps. He moved under Travis Kvapil and grabbed the top spot for the final time with 32 laps to go. A late-race caution set up a green-white-checkered finish. On the restart, Hornaday quickly pulled ahead of second-place Johnny Benson and then beat him to the finish line by one truck length. It was Hornaday's third of four victories in 2007 en route to his championship season.

Points leader Johnny Benson qualified eighth. Benson won at Kentucky and moved from fourth to first in the standings. Benson holds only a one-point advantage over Matt Crafton, who finished third. Ron Hornaday, Jr. came to Kentucky with a 27-point lead, but after a 10th-place run at 1.5-mile track, Hornaday slipped to third in points. He's five markers behind Benson. Rick Crawford and Mike Skinner are fourth and fifth in points.

The separation between first and second is not the closest points margin in the series after the 13th race of the year. Brendan Gaughan and Travis Kvapil were tied at this point in 2003. Kvapil went on to clinch the series championship that year.

The separation between Benson and Skinner is 101 points, making it the closest margin among the top-five drivers after 13 races have been completed in a season.

The green flag for tonight's event is scheduled to drop around at 8 p.m. (et).

































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