JOLIET, Ill. -- ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards points leader Brennan Poole drove the fastest lap in open testing at Chicagoland Speedway today, rounding the 1.5-mile oval in 30.949 seconds at an average speed of 174.481 mph.

Poole, in the No. 25 Venturini Motorsports Toyota, drove that lap in the three-hour morning session to lead his closest pursuer, teammate Ryan Reed. Reed completed an afternoon lap of 31.555 seconds to lead that five-hour session.

Nelson Canache, another Venturini driver, charted third, just ahead of Spencer Gallagher and Chris Buescher, who like Poole is a two-time race winner this season. Buescher, who is second in points, won at Michigan International Speedway Friday; the victory was his first on a speedway.

The full list of drivers and top speeds is below.

Pos
Car
Driver
Make
Time
Speed
1
25
Brennan Poole
Toyota
30.949
174.481
2
15
Ryan Reed
Ford
31.555
171.130
3
35
Nelson Canache
Toyota
31.855
169.518
4
23
Spencer Gallagher
Chevy
31.869
169.444
5
17
Chris Buescher
Ford
31.918
169.184
6
83a
Michael Simko
Chevy
32.243
167.478
7
18
Trevor Edwards
Dodge
32.386
166.739
8
88
Buster Graham
Ford
32.477
166.272
9
66
Mark Thompson
Toyota
32.516
166.072
10
99
Brandon Davis
Ford
32.654
165.370
11
91
Roby Bujdoso
Ford
33.508
161.156
12
83
Mike Affarano
Chevy
33.538
161.011
13
18a
Chris Brown
Dodge
33.608
160.676
14
64
Jack Hughes
Dodge
37.442
144.223


The Ansell ActivArmr® 150 at Chicagoland Speedway will air live on SPEED at 5 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 21. Practice will open one day earlier. ARCARacing.com will feature live timing and scoring coverage of all on-track activity.

This weekend, an ARCA tripleheader is on the schedule at Indiana's half-mile Winchester Speedway, as the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards headlines a weekend that also features the ARCA CRA Super Series and ARCA Truck Series. The ARCA Racing Series will hold two 45-minute practices on Saturday, at 12:05 and 2:05 p.m. Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell will follow at 4:30, just before the Truck Series race at 5:30 and the Super Series event at 6:30.

The 200-lap, 100-mile Herr's Chase the Taste 200 will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday, with live timing and scoring and live audio coverage presented by the ARCA Racing Network available at ARCARacing.com.

2012 is the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards' 60th Anniversary Season, featuring 20 races at 18 tracks. The complete 2012 event schedule is available at ARCARacing.com.

The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards has crowned an ARCA national champion each year since its inaugural season in 1953, and has toured over 200 race tracks in 26 states since its inception. The series has tested the abilities of drivers and race teams over the most diverse schedule of stock car racing events in the world, visiting tracks ranging from 0.375 mile to 2.66 miles in length, on both paved and dirt surfaces as well as a left- and right-turn road course in its most recent season. This year, the series visited Alabama's Mobile International Speedway and Minnesota's Elko Speedway for the first time.

Founded by John and Mildred Marcum in 1953 in Toledo, Ohio, the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) is recognized among the leading sanctioning bodies in the country. Closing in on completing its sixth decade after hundreds of thousands of miles of racing, ARCA administers over 100 race events each season in three professional touring series and local weekly events.