Martin Truex Jr. will lead the field to the green flag on Sunday at Pocono Raceway.
The driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota scored the pole for the Pennsylvania 400 after posting a time of 50.211 and a speed of 179.244 mph.
“Feeling great,” Truex said of his feelings on getting the pole position. “It’s exciting for us, you know anytime you win anything in this series it’s a big deal. Getting a pole today is awesome. We had a game plan coming here that we felt like we needed to qualify well to have a shot at winning on Sunday and we were able to do so today was a success.”266
It’s his 10th career pole in 390 Sprint Cup Series starts, the third of the season, first in 22 starts at Pocono and his 14th top-10 start of 2016.
Carl Edwards will start second in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota after posting a time of 50.315 and a speed of 178.873 mph.
““I guess the thing I’m most grateful for about the lap is coming across the line I had the urge because it was such a good lap to say something on the radio like, ‘That’s it. That’s the pole.’ I’ve got to brag a little bit but it wasn’t good enough so I’m glad I didn’t say that,” Edwards said of his qualifying run. “My lap was awesome and Martin’s lap was spectacular so congrats to them. We have a very fast race car and all three rounds went really well and I’m really looking forward to the race.”
Paul Menard will start third in his No. 27 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet after posting a time of 50.372 and a speed of 178.671 mph.
Menard said afterwards that he has “had a rough year. We are not where we expected to be and need to be in points, so we had to make a change. Danny (Stockman) came in here and gave us a good car right off the truck. We stuck in qualifying trim all day. We know we have to improve our qualifying that just starts your race off way better. A good way to start it off.”
Denny Hamlin will start fourth in his No. 11 JGR Toyota after posting a time of 50.409 and a speed of 178.540 mph. Ryan Newman will round out the top-five starters in his No. 31 RCR Chevrolet after posting a time of 50.439 and a speed of 178.433 mph.
Tony Stewart will start sixth in his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. Brad Keselowski will start seventh in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford. Chase Elliott will start eighth in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Matt Kenseth will start ninth in his No. 20 JGR Toyota. Joey Logano will round out the top-10 in his No. 22 Penske Ford.
Kyle Larson will start 11th in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Austin Dillon will round out the 12 drivers that made the final round of qualifying in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet.
Forty cars attempted to qualify. So no driver was sent home.
Twenty-two Chevrolet’s, 11 Ford’s and seven Toyota’s will comprise the 40-car field for Sunday’s Pennsylvania 400.
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