By Dustin Dow
The Cincinnati Enquirer

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Photos of Friday's racing

SPARTA, Ky. - Jon Wood doesn't have a primary sponsor, but he has the fastest truck in the history of Kentucky Speedway.

The 21-year-old Roush Racing driver set a track series record Friday in qualifying for today's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Built Ford Tough 225, which drops the green flag at 8 p.m.

But it might be Woods' last truck race for a while. On Tuesday, Roush Racing is expected to end the truck season for its drivers, Wood and rookie Carl Edwards, each of whom is driving without a primary sponsor. Wood has a secondary sponsor, Bob Graham for President.

"I don't know what the future holds," Wood said as he watched the rest of the field try to match his top qualifying speed of 169.641 mph in 31.832 seconds around the 1 1/2-mile track. "Some way, somehow, this team should come up with something to keep going. We've got so much momentum, it would be a shame to quit racing."

Indeed, Wood has momentum. He claimed his second pole position of the season Friday, less than a week after winning his first truck race, in Kansas. The win pushed him to seventh in the series standings, three spots ahead of Edwards.

"I didn't even think we were running that good," Wood said. "This isn't our main objective, because we haven't focused that much on qualifying."

Instead, Wood said, the team planned on finishing just high enough in qualifying to have a chance to run for the lead in today's race. Because he and Edwards are without primary sponsors, Wood said they will race with a little extra pressure today to stay up front.

"When you lose a sponsor, that's a main priority," Wood said. "It motivates you a little bit."

Wood said racing without a sponsor and the resources that come with that financing causes him to take fewer chances on the track. That has resulted in consistent finishes for both him and Edwards, who has four top-10 finishes to Woods' seven.

"We feed off each other a lot," Edwards said. "We need sponsors to keep going like this."

Bobby Hamilton, father of Bobby Hamilton Jr., the winner of the Busch Series Meijer 300 at Kentucky in June, will start outside of Wood on the front row today after turning in a lap of 169.513 mph.

"I'm happy with my lap," said Hamilton, who is third in the point standings, 30 behind leader Travis Kvapil. "Our Dodge has been good since we unloaded it here. I don't know where it came from, but it's a good thing."

Kvapil will start on the outside of the seventh row, qualifying 14th.

Last week's pole winner at Kansas, Chad Chaffin, turned in the third-best time Friday at Kentucky. Chaffin said he was surprised at first with his 168.734 mph speed, which was slower than he expected. Chaffin had hoped to grab the pole for the second straight week.

"I thought we could do it again," Chaffin said. "My first instinct was I was a little disappointed."

But Chaffin will start in the second row, a critical position for staying near the front of the race, said Hamilton.

"You need to be in the top six or seven," Hamilton said. "Starting up there is an advantage."

Built Ford Tough 225

When: 8 p.m. today.

TV: Speed Channel.

Where: Kentucky Speedway (oval, 1.5 miles, 14 degrees banking in turns), Sparta.

Race distance: 225 miles, 150 laps.

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