Ken Quartuccio secured the provisional No. 1 position at the U.S. Street Nationals with a 3.572-second pass at 211.36 mph during Friday’s only qualifying session. This performance follows his runner-up finish at the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals presented by Motion Raceworks.

The cancellation of Friday’s second qualifying session due to dropping temperatures made Quartuccio’s time crucial, putting him ahead in a competitive field of nearly 70 Pro Mods. Dmitry Samorukov currently holds the 32-car bump spot with a time of 3.739 seconds.

“Historically, I run really good here,” Quartuccio said. “I’ve won a ton of races here. I came here for the first time in 1992 and ran Pro Mod off and on through the years, and won 6-7 times in a row in Outlaw 632, then we won in Pro275 and other classes…but this is like my home. Whenever I’m not doing good, I come here and run. And whenever I runner-up at Snowbirds, I usually win at U.S. Street.

“I was actually glad there was no testing,” Quartuccio continued. “I knew it would hurt some of the other teams more than it would hurt us. We weren’t really planning on testing anyway. It just really held everybody back a couple runs, and I think that’ll come to our advantage.”

With cool temperatures forecasted again for Saturday, Quartuccio believes there is zero chance his 3.57 will hold up throughout qualifying. And with 68 other drivers shooting for the top spot, there’s a good chance his prediction will come true.

“I would make a bet that the handcuffs are off now,” said Quartuccio. “The turbo cars know what they can do, and I believe that Mark Micke, as good as he is, I’d be surprised if he doesn’t go 3.55. And we plan on going faster in the morning, and I think that will dictate…I mean, none of it’s going to matter for Sunday, because it’s going to warm up and be a totally different track.”