Rajah Caruth enters Friday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway fighting to make The Chase, just 15 points below the cutline. Now, after a strong start to the weekend, the world is his oyster.

The 24-year-old driver will lead the field to green in Friday’s Winn-Dixie 250 at Daytona International Speedway, driving the No. 88 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro for JR Motorsports, after laying down a strong lap in the second round of qualifying Friday.

Posting a time of 49.118 seconds (183.232mph), Caurth was able to beat his JR Motorsports teammate Carson Kvapil by over a tenth of a second to secure his first-ever pole in NASCAR’s second-tier division.

Kvapil, who will start on the outside of the front row, was also looking for his first career pole, but will have to settle for second in the No. 1 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro.

Jesse Love, who alongside his Richard Childress Racing team has been the class of superspeedway qualifying in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, will start from third place, with fellow Chevrolet drivers Sheldon Creed and Sammy Smith rounding out the top-five.

Sam Mayer, William Sawalich, Austin Hill, Anthony Alfredo, and Taylor Gray rounded out the top-10. Alfredo, driving the No. 96 Chevrolet for Vilking Motorsports, had an incredible comeback to start top-10 after failing to qualify for February’s event at “The World Center of Racing”.

Other notables outside the top-10 include Ryan Sieg (12th), Brandon Jones (13th), Corey Day (14th), Justin Allgaier (18th), Parker Retzlaff (24th). Andy Jankowiak, driving the No. 39 for RSS Racing, will make his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut on Friday, starting from 38th.

With 39 drivers on the entry list for this weekend’s event, Dawson Cram, driving the No. 47 for Mike Harmon Racing, was sent packing prior to the drop of the green flag on Friday.

PHOTO: Rory Malloy