Martin Truex Jr. will start from the pole for the second consecutive week in the NASCAR Cup Series as he again put Toyota in the top of the chart at Martinsville Speedway.
Truex’s pole-winning speed was 94.153mph (20.112s). He was the final driver to take time in the final round and knocked Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs from the top spot.
It is Truex’s 23rd career pole in the Cup Series and second at Martinsville Speedway in 36 starts. He has three pole wins this season.
“It’s fun to go [out] last because you always feel like in your mind it’s a bit of advantage here,” Truex said. “The track seems to get better as cars run by themselves. Felt good about that, but wasn’t sure how to drive the car compared to run one. It seemed like everybody else was a little bit slower than their first run in round one, so I was like, ‘OK, if I can just try to go out and match what I did as far the way I drive the car, and we made the right adjustment, it’ll be good.’
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1428]
“My first lap basically matched my first lap from run one and then didn’t need another one. It all worked out. The guys made a little adjustment, I hit my marks and here we are.”
Toyota has claimed eight of the nine pole awards in the Cup Series postseason.
Gibbs will start second (94.115mph) and Chase Briscoe will start third (94.106mph). Denny Hamlin starts fourth (94.055mph) and Kyle Larson fifth (93.854mph).
Bubba Wallace starts sixth (93.784mph), Christopher Bell seventh (93.705mph), Kevin Harvick eighth (93.548mph), Ryan Preece ninth (93.548mph) and Brad Keselowski 10th (93.423mph).
Ryan Blaney starts 11th. He goes into Sunday holding down the final transfer spot on the Cup Series playoff grid.
William Byron starts 16th, Chris Buescher 18th and Tyler Reddick 19th. Reddick spun through Turns 3 and 4 on his second lap in qualifying but did not hit anything.