Jones Qualifies 17th, Truex 25th at Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (June 30, 2017) – Furniture Row Racing’s Erik Jones qualified 17th and teammate Martin Truex, Jr. 25th for Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
Jones and the No. 77 Sport Clips Toyota Camry will line up on the inside of Row 9 for the 160-lap race after posting a lap of 47.624 seconds at 188.980 mph on the 2.5-mile oval in the first of Friday’s two qualifying rounds. Only the top 12 from the first round moved on to the pole round.
“We struggled trying to find speed in practice yesterday so I was a little bit surprised the Sport Clips Toyota ran as well as it did in qualifying,” said Jones. “I’m confident Chris (Gayle, crew chief) and the crew will come up with what we need to be competitive in the race.”
Truex will line up on the inside of Row 13 after running a lap of 47.815 at 188.225 in the No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/NRA Museum Toyota Camry.
“The Bass Pro Shops/NRA Museum Camry was on the splitter all the way around the track but I thought we might be a little bit faster than that,” said Truex. “It’s Daytona, though, so we’ll be fine for the race.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole position with a lap of 47.127 at 190.973. The balance of the top-12 qualifiers, in order, were Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Joe Logano, Jamie McMurray, Ryan Blaney, Danica Patrick, Clint Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson.
Saturday’s Coke Zero 400 will air live beginning at 5:30 p.m. MT (7:30 p.m. ET) on NBC, SiriusXM 90 and PRN.
