Lester on Pole at Lowe's

Bill Lester, a sports car veteran attempting to make his mark in NASCAR racing, won the pole for Friday's inaugural Craftsman Truck Series Hardee's 200 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Lester drove his Dodge Ram pickup truck to an average speed of 175.893 mph around the 1.5-mile superspeedway to oust Jason Leffler from the provisional pole. Leffler, bidding for his 10th series pole, drove his Team ASE Racing/Carquest Dodge to a speed of 175.530 - just .011-second off Lester's time.

The pole was the first for the 42-year-old Lester, whose best previous start, second, came last November at Phoenix International Raceway. The Oakland, Calif. driver is the first African-American to win a pole on a NASCAR national series in the modern era. Wendell Scott is the only other black competitor to have won a pole - on July 20, 1962 in a NASCAR Winston Cup (then Grand National) race in Savannah, Ga.

"I'm on top of the world," said Lester, a University of California-Berkeley engineering graduate who gave up a high-tech career to race professionally. He joined the series in 2002 and finished runner-up in rookie-of-the-year standings.

"I'm living a dream and things are starting to pay off for me."

Lester, who'll make his 32nd series start in the 134-lap, 201-mile race, also hopes to improve on a career-best finish of 11th.

"I predicted a top-10 finish," he said. "I'm thinking about race day now."