Matt Brabham continues SST Mid-Ohio qualifying success

For the fifth consecutive weekend, Matt Brabham was the fastest in Stadium Super Trucks qualifying. Friday’s practice/qualifying session at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course saw Brabham lead the field of nine to notch his third Fastest Qualifier in as many rounds in 2021.

Brabham set a best lap time of 1:48.117, a .668-second advantage over second-placed Robby Gordon; by comparison, at the first Mid-Ohio date in June, the margin between first (Brabham) and second (Sheldon Creed, who is not entered this weekend) was .376. In addition to extending his FQ streak—which began at the 2020 season opener in Adelaide—to five, Brabham has led every SST qualifying session at Mid-Ohio including the two 2019 rounds. He and Gordon are the only drivers in the field with victories at the Lexington track as they split the 2019 NASCAR Xfinity support weekend and Gordon won Race #2 in June.

Jerett Brooks, making his return to SST after last racing in 2019, was third at 1:50.410. Brooks has never raced on a permanent road course in a stadium truck, but the off-road truck champion has three podiums on paved street circuits.

A deadly combination for Atlanta Falcons fans followed the trio as trucks numbered 28 and 3 placed fourth and fifth with Robert Stout and Aaron Bambach, respectively. Bambach ran the June Mid-Ohio round in what was his first SST start since 2018. Although he finished in the upper half of the field, Stout did not finish the session due to issues pertaining to his left-rear tyre.

Tailing sixth-placed Max Gordon was Bill Hynes, who returns after skipping Mid-Ohio 1 for scheduling reasons. Jett Noland and Bo LeMastus, both of whom ran the opener in St. Petersburg and have experience in the NASCAR Camping World Truck and ARCA Menards Series, rounded out the grid.

Two races are scheduled in support of the NTT IndyCar Series. The first will take place on Saturday, 3 June at 1:40 PM Eastern, while the second is the following day at 2:30 PM.

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