It’s hard to imagine a driver who has already achieved so much success in Pro Stock by winning four races in his relatively sho rt career may have finally gotten around to scoring his first career No. 1 qualifying effort. The action took place during first-day competition at the DeWalt Tools NHRA Carolinas Nationals. 

“If it holds, this would be the first pole position,” Aaron Stanfield said with a smile. “I guess I haven’t been holding the throttle down hard enough. But I held it down good that time.”

Stanfield stopped the Compulink timing system at zMax Dragway with a run of 6.575 seconds at 208.59 miles per hour. 

“I got on the radio after that run, and I said, ‘That was a really nice run.”  

 “And obviously, It was. I was surprised to see it stand with some really good race cars behind me. But it was a cool feeling for sure.”

Stanfield said his Elite Performance-powered team doesn’t plan to rest on their laurels headed into the warmer Saturday sessions. 

“I think we should try to improve,” Stanfield said. “There’s still a couple good cars that need to make some good runs. So I can’t say that it will or won’t hold up, but I hope it does.” 

Saturday will present a challenge, unlike what he sees on Sunday. At least, this is how Stanfield sees it.

“When you’re getting ready for race day, you’re kind of getting geared up for race day,” Stanfield explained. “The conditions just lined up really good. The track cools down, the air cools down, and it’s favorable to make a fast run, and that’s what we did. So definitely, probably a little bit different between going for a pole position and race winning. But it’s the goal in mind is to keep the performance at the best we can and drive the best I can.”