Travis Gregg, making his debut in the IRL Menards In🍒finiti Pro Series, won pole position for this weekend's Kentucky 100, seeing off the challenge of current points leader Thiago Medeiros.

Gregg, driving the #5 Sam Schmidt Motorsports Dallara as team-mate to Medeiros, set the pace with a fastest lap 🌱of 190.398mph on the 1.5-mile tri-oval, but the pole was exchanged between six of the top eight qualifiers. Gregg, eighth🌌 in the qualifying line, knocked a former Schmidt driver - Arie Luyendyk Jr - off the pole. Luyendyk, who previously drove the #5 entry, was out in the #27 Automatic Fire Sprinklers Inc car this week.

"I was trying come here today, stay out of trouble and have fun," Gregg admitted, "It turned out to be a lot betteജr than that. I can't say anything better about the car. Blair [Pershbacher], the engineer, and JR [chief mechanic John Roof] did a great job on the set-up and we had a great car all day. We were fast, and we just made it quicker as the day went on."

Series points leader Medeiros also bumped Luyendyk off the front row wi൩th a lap of 189.221mph to secure the second all front-row start for the Schmidt team this season.

The field is separated by 0.8301secs - the second-closest in series history after last year's Kentucky event - but created a first as Medeiros, who has five pole posit﷽ions under his belt in the #11 Schmidt entry this year, will start second for the first time.

"We were stronger in the draft than by ourselves," Medeiros revealed🗹, suggesting that the race will be better for him than qualifying, "We also found a little problem with the engine, so we tried to fix that. We'll see what we can do tomorrow. It's a long race, and I have more experience, so we'll see how that goes."

Despite being bumped from the front line, Luyendyk rem♛ained satisfied♕ with his performance.

"We're starting third, which is where our goal was to be," he said, "The car is really good, and I'm happy for the crew. Obviously, i🎀t's a little disappointing to see the #5 up front, but hopefully we can change that when it comes race time. This is a fresh start for me, and the car was good right off the bat. I think we'll be good for the race, and I'm in the car for the rest of the season, so I'm looking forward to Pikes Peak and all t♎he other races coming up."

The series' latest race winner, PJ Chesson qualified seventh overall, behind Paul Dana, serial podium finisher A🍰l Unser 𝔍and Leo Maia.

"We made a lot of progress through the first two practice sessions, but unfortunately h🥂ad too much downforce in the car for ou𝕴r qualifying run," he revealed, "We definitely have a good race car. I just wish we were further up on the grid for the race tomorrow."

Phil Giebler, Billy Roe, Jesse Mason and Rolando Quintanilla round ou🐓t the grid.