Ryan Truex, less than two weeks removed from a hospital stay, showed no ill effects from that experience Saturday morning as he won the pole for Saturday afternoon’s 5-Hour Energy 200 Nationwide Series race at Dover International Speedway.
Truex turned in a fast lap of 154.746 miles per hour to earn the first starting spot, marking his first Nationwide pole.
Truex, younger brother of Sprint Cup regular Martin Truex Jr., was hospitalized 11 days ago for an appendectomy. Martin was scheduled to substitute for Ryan if he did not improve in time for the race, but, obviously, the younger brother responded.
Ryan led a Joe Gibbs Racing rush on the front row. Joey Logano was second at 154.453 mph.
Following in the top five were Ty Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Brian Scott.
In the second five were Elliott Sadler, Justin Allgaier, Mike Bliss, Kurt Busch and Sam Hornish Jr.
Stenhouse Jr. has a 13-point lead over Sadler in the series standings entering the 12th race of the season.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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