CONCORD, N.C. (AP) – Everybody went fast. Mike Skinner simply did it the best.

The 47-year-old veteran got the 19th pole of his Craftsman Truck Series career with a record lap of 183.051 mph Thursday night in qualifying at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. He edged Rick Crawford and Nextel Cup rookie Kyle Busch as 29 of the 36 starters beat the previous track record.

In an effort to smooth out the track, officials ground down the surface in the turns several weeks ago, and the result was a grippy surface that allowed the top trucks to run nearly wide open. Skinner and his Toyota beat the old mark by 3 mph.

“I’m praying for no tire problems, because of the speed and the grip,” he said. “I think you’re going to see a better truck race than you’ve ever seen here before.”

But starting up front holds no guarantees, particularly this season. Because NASCAR limits the number of tires each truck team can use at an event, some competitors decide to qualify on a used set, saving the new ones for the race. The strategy has worked well for points leader Bobby Hamilton, who has won two races from deep in the field.

Last week at Mansfield, Ohio, he started 26th before winning, and he came from 36th in the opener at Daytona. He was 23rd on Thursday night.

“It costs him a little in qualifying, but if the pit stops fall in the right place, he’s going to have an extra set of tires than everybody else,” Skinner said. “Maybe he’s just smarter than everyone else.”

Busch put a deal together earlier this week to drive a Chevrolet owned by Billy Ballew in Friday night’s Quaker Steak & Lube 200, hoping to learn as much as he can about the new track surface before the All-Star events Saturday night for the Nextel Cup cars. He was fastest in the second practice session, and thought he carried that over to qualifying when he completed his run.

“I said, There ain’t nobody going to beat that,’ and then two trucks later, Rick Crawford beat it,” Busch said. “It’s going to be a good benefit for us to learn the race track.”

Following Busch were the Toyotas of Robert Huffman, Bill Lester and Chad Chaffin. Defending race winner Dennis Setzer will start 18th in his Chevrolet, right in front of teammate-for-the-weekend Tony Stewart, who had engine troubles earlier in the day and got limited practice time.

Crawford, a disappointing 13th in points, struggled a bit in the opening session before rallying.

“We panicked a little bit there, we had some issues,” Crawford said. “But it shows how strong this crew is.”

Ricky Craven, third in the points standing, qualified 13th.

Jimmy Kite failed to qualify for the race, giving him more time to concentrate on his attempt to make the Indy 500 for the first time since 2003. A day earlier, he was hired to drive for Ron Hemelgarn at the Brickyard, and Kite hopes to qualify Saturday.