Elkhart, WI – Nelson Piquet Jr. will start on the pole for Saturday's Sargento 200 Nationwide Series race after posting the fastest lap in qualifying at Road America.
Piquet, a former Formula One driver turned Camping World Truck Series regular, turned a lap around the 4.048-mile, 14 turn road course in 2 minutes, 13.066 seconds for his first Nationwide pole in just his third start. The 26-year-old Brazilian is driving the No. 30 Chevrolet for Turner Motorsports.
Michael McDowell, who is behind the wheel of the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, earned the outside pole with a lap at 2:13.380.
Canadians Ron Fellows and Jacques Villeneuve qualified third and fourth, respectively, while Italy's Max Papis completed the top-five.
Brian Scott will start sixth, followed by Justin Allgaier, Sam Hornish Jr., Miguel Paludo and Danica Patrick.
Elliott Sadler, the current points leader, qualified 13th. Sadler holds an eight-point advantage over his Richard Childress Racing teammate, Austin Dillon, who will start 23rd. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who is 27 points behind Sadler, will roll off from the 11th spot.
Kurt Busch, the only Sprint Cup Series regular competing in this race, will start 22nd. Sprint Cup is racing at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA this weekend.
The 50-lap race at Road America is scheduled to start just at 3:30 p.m. (ET).