LOUDON, N.H. (AP) – Winston Cup driver Jimmy Spencer began his double-duty weekend by winning the pole Friday for the NASCAR truck series race at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Spencer beat Brendan Gaughan in qualifying for Saturday’s New Hampshire 200 Craftsman Truck series race. It is only the second truck race for Spencer, in his 15th year as a Winston Cup driver.

He took little of the credit for the run.

“It’s unbelievable that we didn’t have to hardly do anything to this truck,” he said. “It was actually a little loose, but it was good enough.”

Spencer stepped into the truck ride as an interim driver after Jason Leffler, who won two poles earlier this season, moved into a full-time Winston Cup ride with the Haas CNC team.

The starting lineup for Spencer’s first truck race, last week in Richmond, was set by owner points after qualifying was rained out.

“Hey, I won a pole the first time I actually tried to qualify a truck. That’s pretty good,” said Spencer, who later qualified 34th for Sunday’s Sylvania 300, the Winston Cup event.

The truck is owned by Jim Smith, who also fields the Dodge Spencer drives in Winston Cup. Andy Houston is scheduled to drive the next two races for the truck team, which also fields entries for Ted Musgrave.

Spencer’s fast lap on Friday was 127.346 mph, while Gaughan turned a lap of 127.210.

Bobby Hamilton was next at 126.740, giving Dodge the top three spots in the field of 36. Rookie Carl Edwards qualified fourth in a Ford at 126.686, followed by the Chevrolet of Winston Cup regular Ken Schrader at 126.669.

AP-ES-09-12-03 2215EDT