KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? Just about everybody who will race in today’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway broke the 1.5-mile track’s qualifying record Friday.

But Bill Lester beat everyone.

“I’m more excited about this truck in race conditions than in qualifying,” said Lester, who claimed his second career pole with a fast lap of 173.633 mph – .089 seconds quicker than Bill Davis Racing teammate Mike Skinner.

“I was really kind of surprised we took the pole,” Lester said.

Skinner wasn’t.

“Bill Lester has come a long ways,” Skinner said of the 44-year-old Californian. “He’s just matured a lot as a driver.”

Part of that maturation has happened at Kansas, where in 2003 he recorded his first top-10 finish: 10th.

Lester, top qualifier at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in May of 2003, became NASCAR’s first black pole winner in more than 40 years.

Friday’s run marked the third time in the last four years that Lester has started among the top three at Kansas Speedway.

“I like this track,” he said. “I think we’ll have a historic run tomorrow. I’m happy about the pole, but it’s all about racing – and I think we have a truck to be reckoned with tomorrow.”

Bill Lester, left, gets a pat on the back from crew chief Doug Wolcott after Lester snared the pole for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series O'Reilly Auto Parts 250. Lester took the top spot Friday at Kansas Speedway.

So, too, could Skinner, who scored his fifth front-row start of 2005.

“Our Tundra was really fast today,” said Skinner, who followed Lester during qualifying and came up just short with his lap of 173.138 mph.

“We weren’t good in qualifying trim in practice. We were way too loose. We gave up some stuff in qualifying trim to hopefully be better in the race. We took a different approach this week. We thought we’d be better on the end of long runs like we have our truck now.”

Following Skinner was Raybestos Rookie of the Year contender Todd Kluever, who recorded his best qualification: third at 172.667 mph.

“I’m very excited,” said Kluever, who swapped crew chiefs with Roush Racing teammate Ricky Craven earlier in the week. “It’s been an up-and-down season for us, but today was like turning a new page, getting a fresh start.”

David Reutimann was fourth, while Jack Sprague was fifth. Robert Huffman, Jimmy Spencer, Brandon Whitt, Ted Musgrave and Todd Bodine rounded out the top 10 for the race, which starts at 2:15 p.m. and will be televised live by the SPEED Channel, which is available locally on Sunflower Broadband Channel 150.

Thirty one of the 36 qualifiers broke Chad Chaffin’s 2003 qualifying record of 166.323 mph.