TALLADEGA, Ala. — Martin Truex Jr. will lead the field to the green flag tomorrow at Talladega Superspeedway.
The driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota posted the fastest time in the final round of qualifying and scored the pole position for the Hellmann’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway with a time of 49.509 and a speed of 193.423 mph.
“It’s definitely the place to be to start the race – it’s just about trying to stay there as long as you can,” Truex said. “We’ll see what happens. This is obviously a big race with a lot on the line. I look forward to it. I’m just so proud of the guys in Denver and everybody here at the race track for what they did here. This is all about the team, all about what they do and all about the guys at TRD (Toyota Racing Development) in California building these engines, so my hat’s off to all of them. I’m lucky to be sitting behind the wheel and holding it to the floor. It was a good day today and hopefully, we will have another good day tomorrow.”
It’s his 11th career pole in 401 Sprint Cup Series starts, fourth of the season and first at Talladega Superspeedway.
His car was at the center of a parts confiscation stir earlier today when NASCAR confiscated a front jack bolt that started a discussion over Truex getting a Chase-ending penalty. But Scott Miller, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, said it wasn’t “a real competitive advantage” and “unlikely” to result in a penalty.
Three of the JGR cars – 11, 18 and 20 – were sent back to the garage before they were allowed to make their qualifying run. Miller said the issue was “body manipulation.”
“The quarter panels (on the right side) appeared to have been messed with around the deck lid,” he added. “(We) brought them back in to rectify it.”
Brad Keselowski will join him on the front row in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford after posting a time of 49.523 and a speed of 193.365 mph.
“It’s good to qualify up front,” Keselowski said. “I think it’s a good confidence boost. I feel like when we have cars that qualify well here, we race well. The Miller Lite Ford was really fast here in qualifying and hopefully, it will stay the same for Sunday.”
Matt Kenseth will start third in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota after posting a time of 49.568 and a speed of 193.189 mph.
“Good for America. It was good,” Kenseth said of his qualifying run. “I think we ended up third, so that’s really good. It’s obviously a team qualifying session – not anything to do with the driver really. I just steered around and hold it to the floor, so obviously, they did a good job and it’s a good spot to start.”
Chase Elliott will start fourth in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet after posting a time of 49.574 and a speed of 193.166 mph. Greg Biffle will round out the top-five starters in his No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford after posting a time of 49.585 and a speed of 193.123 mph.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon and Paul Menard will round out the top-10.
Trevor Bayne and Reed Sorenson, who posted the fastest time in the first round in his No. 55 Premium Motorsports Toyota, will round out the 12 drivers that made the final round of qualifying.
Carl Edwards will start 13th, Kyle Busch will start 14th, Joey Logano will start 16th, Jimmie Johnson will start 17th and Kevin Harvick will be the lowest starting Chase driver in 22nd.
David Gilliland was the lone driver that failed to make the race.
In total, 19 Chevrolet’s, 12 Ford’s and nine Toyota’s will comprise the 40-car field for Sunday’s Hellmann’s 500 at Talladega.
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