Thompson qualifying notes

Civali Captures Pole For Season-Opening Icebreaker

Civali Earns First Career Pole

THOMPSON, Conn. (April 5, 2008) - - James Civali captured his first career Coors Light Pole Saturday evening at Thompson International Speedway in qualifying for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season-opening Icebreaker.

Entering his third season, Civali captured the pole for the first time in what will be his 37th career start on Sunday. The Meriden, Conn., native ran an 18.585 sec. lap on the .625-mile banked oval for a speed of 120.097.

"The car was good right off the truck," Civali said. "We didn't change much of anything, the car was just right-on."

Bobby Grigas III at 18.613 (119.916), Todd Szedgedy at 18.759 (118.983), Ronnie Silk at 18.792 (118.774) and Jimmy Blewett at 18.798 (118.736) rounded out the top five qualifiers.

The defending champion of the Icebreaker, Civali will start fifth in Sunday's main event following the post-qualifying re-draw of the top six positions. Grigas drew the No. 1 starting position and he will be joined in the front row by Silk.

The Icebreaker, a 150-lap race, is scheduled to go green on Sunday at approximately 3:15 p.m., following a pre-race show that will include the honoring of past NASCAR Modified champions Frankie Schneider, Donny Lia and Richie Evans. The pre-race show is tentatively set to begin at 2:45 p.m. For ticket information, please visit Thompson's official Web Site (thompsonspeedway.com).

-credit: nascar