Martin Truex Jr. will lead the field to the green flag on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway after earning the pole with a lap of 167.411 mph (32.256 seconds).
it is Truex’s second pole of the season and his first in Miami, as well as being the 500th NASCAR pole for Toyota. Truex also makes it seven out of eight poles for a Toyota driver in the Cup Series playoffs.
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“I feel good; I felt good coming into this round,” Truex said. “I think last week probably didn’t go as well as I thought it was going to or would have hoped. But there was potential – more potential there than we than achieved, so that’s good. And then, coming here, I felt good just because it’s been a good track for us, and we’ve run up front a lot, and it’s just a comfort zone for me, I think, at this kind of racetrack.
“I had confidence. I don’t really expect to get the pole today, honestly, even after practice. I felt like our car was pretty good on the long run, and we needed to make some tweaks to be better for tomorrow, but pretty excited to be on the pole here after that. Didn’t really expect it; was hoping for a top-five and got a little surprise. So, it’s always good when it goes the right way.”
Bubba Wallace qualified second (167.115 mph) with Tyler Reddick qualified third (166.955 mph) to make it a 1-2-3 sweep for Toyota. Wallace had been fastest in practice.
Brad Keselowski was fourth (166.579 mph), ahead of last year’s Homestead winner Kyle Larson in fifth (166.103 mph), and Austin Dillon in sixth (165.894 mph). William Byron qualified seventh (165.853 mph), while Ross Chastain was eighth (165.832 mph), Ty Gibbs ninth (165.817 mph), and Ryan Blaney 10th (165.675 mph).
Denny Hamlin qualified 11th (167.984 mph) and Christopher Bell qualified 13th (167.785 mph). Chris Buescher was the lowest qualifying playoff driver in 17th (166.971 mph).
“We definitely made some really big gains from practice with our fire-off speed with our Fastenal Mustang, so I am happy with that,” Buescher said. “Just missed the second round though with it. At the same time, we needed just a little more there. Maybe a half a 10th, if I am remembering correctly. It was big pickup for us there on those laps.
“Our long run speed was pretty good in practice, it just took us way too long to get to that point to get decent. We had to make some changes that I think we have already started tackling for the qualifying lap and beyond to get going a little quicker but still maintain pace as we get deep into this thing. Good work today.
“There were some rather large changes there to get us in the ballpark and we are there now. We just missed the second round by just a little bit.”
John Hunter Nemechek qualified 24th in the No. 42 Chevrolet. Nemechek is getting his first run with Legacy Motor Club before joining the team next season.
Joey Logano did not make a qualifying lap after crashing off Turn 2 in practice. Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske team is preparing the backup car and he will start at the rear of the field Sunday.
NBC will carry race coverage of the second race in the Round of 8 at 2:30 p.m. ET.