A Joe Gibbs Racing car took the pole for the TreatMyClot.com 300, but it’s not the Toyota that you’re thinking. This week, it was Elliott Sadler putting his No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota on the pole for his 16th career pole award. Sadler scored his first pole of the season with a lap of 40.680 seconds, 176.991 mph.

“The guys made a lot of great changes on this Toyota,” Sadler commented. “I wasn’t able to get these guys a Pole last year so hopefully to get one this early will give us some momentum. Its just a pole – but shows we have a lot of speed in this car. We ran well here last year so hopefully we have a good run here.”

Sadler will be joined by his JGR teammate Matt Kenseth on the front row. Joe Gibbs Racing drivers have won the last nine NASCAR Nationwide Series races at Auto Club Speedway, with five of the race winners starting from the pole.

Rookie Ty Dillon qualified third, followed by Joey Logano and Chase Elliott.

“Overall our NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet was good in qualifying,” Elliott commented. “I messed up in one and two on the last set of qualifying. We have good track position now; hope we have it when it counts today.”

Kevin Harvick qualified sixth and said after qualifying that his team missed the set-up for qualifying, but he feels that he’ll be fine in the race.

“We didn’t do any qualifying runs yesterday to save the tires,” Harvick added. “We paid for a little today but I’d rather have the tires when it comes to race time.”

Dylan Kwasniewski qualified seventh, followed by Kyle Larson, Brian Scott, Brendan Guaghan, Regan Smith and James Buescher. Trevor Bayne, who comes into the weekend second in points, qualified 13th.

Kyle Busch was unable to make an attempt as his team had trouble getting his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota through tech. Crew chief Adam Stevens told MRN radio that Kyle Busch’s car has wheel studs, then skew problems in tech inspection. Meanwhile, NASCAR’s John Darby said it was a rear axle housing issue. Busch will start from the rear of the field, but as noted at Las Vegas, Busch can easily get through the field rather quickly in a Nationwide race.

So far this year, Trevor Bayne is off to a solid start with finishes of third, seventh and a pair of eighth place finishes in the Nationwide Series. For the driver of the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Mustang, it’s an okay start to a year – but at least it’s consistent.

“Starting at Daytona you set the bar for how your points racing will be the first half of the season and fortunately we came out better than we did last year with a third place finish,” Bayne commented. “The last three races I think we wanted to run a little better, obviously, seventh and eighth place finishes aren’t what we show up to do.”

Bayne feels that he could’ve finished stronger at Phoenix had the race not been shortened 35 laps due to rain, but feels that his eighth place finishes at Las Vegas and Bristol represent where their performance was.

Bayne is hoping that this weekend is a stronger performance for his Roush-Fenway Racing team as he feels that they should be finishing in the top five each week.

“The last race I ran here, last season, we ran top-five the majority of the day and got too loose at the end,” Bayne added. “Today it is going to be all about making the right race adjustments as the track changes and being able to fire off quicker on restarts. I feel like that is where we struggled a little last year. Over the long run we were pretty good. I think Chad Norris and I have a pretty good plan for this weekend.”

Well becoming a top five contender would be nice, a win would be even nicer and that’ll take beating Joe Gibbs Racing with their dominance as of late. Bayne feels that they’re having success due to the caliber of drivers to pass information between with Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Elliott Sadler versus Bayne’s teammates both being rookies this year.

“We need to get our teammates up to speed a little and our car up to speed where we can try three different things in a weekend and figure out which package is going to be best and what direction we need to go,” Bayne commented. “Hopefully we are going to be able to do that. We are trying to identify areas where our Nationwide and Cup cars are weak right now. At the end of the day, speed fixes a lot of that. It is a lot easier on the driver when you unload and the car is fast. Way easier on the crew chief. We just have to get a better base package when we show up at the track and be able to adjust balance.”

Bayne added that it is frustrating to lose to not only Cup regulars but anybody in the series, and his team is working hard on making sure that doesn’t happen in future races.

“We are working hard every day and I think Chad and I will get better with communication,” Bayne continued. “I think that is a bonus for me this season, how good we already are communicating. We just need to unload a little closer at these racetracks to beat those guys.”

The solid start, though, is welcome for Bayne as he entered this season with a new crew chief – Chad Norris, and Bayne says the communication has been great so far.

“We worked together in 2011 and that has helped us fire of quicker than some guys that are new with their crews,” Bayne commented. “Chad is pretty calm. Having Jason Hedlesky in the spotters stand has been great for me. He makes great decisions for me sometimes when I want to race a little bit harder than I need to early in the race. He will back me up a little and when I need to go after somebody he is great about giving me information. If the guy in front of me is struggling loose or tight or running the top or bottom, I know if I catch somebody I can make that pass a little quicker rather than ride behind them for five laps.”

Bayne feels that if they can keep the consistency and eliminate mistakes throughout the year, he feels that he will be in championship contention down the second half of the season.