In his second-to-last NASCAR Cup Series race as a full-time driver, Martin Truex Jr. will start on pole for Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
Truex topped the final round of qualifying with a fastest speed of 96.19 mph, 0.072 seconds ahead of playoff driver Chase Elliott.
Elliott enters Martinsville 43 points below the playoff cutline, making Sunday a must-win situation for the 2020 Cup Series champion.
“It was exciting today. It is always fun to be – anytime you win anything in this series it is always exciting,” Truex said. “Practice was awesome, fun and to be able to back it up in qualifying felt good. I still know how to go fast around here which is great.
“We just need to figure out how to go fast on the long run here tomorrow. We were off a little bit on that in practice, so we need to figure out how to find some of that, but so far, a great start to the weekend.”
Row two consists of Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron and Stewart-Haas Racing driver Chase Briscoe.
Ty Gibbs (fifth), Harrison Burton (sixth) and Alex Bowman (seventh) follow suit on the grid.
Ryan Preece gave SHR two entries in the top 10 with a eighth-place qualifying effort. 2021 Cup Series champion Kyle Larson qualified ninth as he enters Sunday’s race seven points out of the Championship 4.
“We have a really good car,” Preece said. “I felt like usually we aren’t very good at qualifying, so it’s nice to start up front and have a good pit pick. It’s really important here at Martinsville, so now I feel like we have some really good Ford Mustang Dark Horses and tomorrow is 500 laps.
“We’ve just got to be smart about it and put it in a good place and hopefully be there at the end.”
Austin Dillon starts 10th to complete the top 10 starters.
Other playoff drivers not in the top 10 include: Joey Logano (12th), Ryan Blaney (14th), Christopher Bell (16th), Tyler Reddick (31st) and Denny Hamlin (37th).
Hamlin did not post a qualifying run after crashing early in practice.