Erik Jones earned the best qualifying position of his young rookie NASCAR Cup Series season, fifth, and Furniture Row Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. posted the eighth-fastest time for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The driver of the No. 77 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry posted a lap of 28.157 seconds at 191.782 mph around the 1.5-mile tri-oval during the third and final pole round. He had the third-quickest run in the first round with a lap of 28.302 at 190.799 and the eighth-quickest in the second round with a lap of 28.253 at 191.130. It was his third top-10 qualifying effort in the first 12 races.
“We obviously were hoping for a shot at the pole after practice today but we’ll take that,” said Jones. “We just never quite had the 5-hour ENERGY Camry we had in practice but we managed to get it better in every session and gave ourselves what I felt like a shot to go run for the pole. We just didn’t have quite enough speed, but the 5-Hour ENERGY Camry will be good in race trim and we’ll be just fine.”
Truex and the No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats Toyota Camry was just 17th-fastest in the first round (28.543 at 189.88), but rebounded to fifth after the second (28.183 at 191.605) and eighth in the pole-shootout round of 12 drivers (28.236 at 191.245). It was his ninth top-10 qualifying effort in the first 12 races.
“The Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats team rebounded well after the first round but we just didn’t have enough for the pole,” said Truex. “The Coca-Cola 600 is an endurance race and while there may never be a run like we had here last year, we feel pretty good that we’ll be strong Sunday night and in the mix for the win after 600 miles.”
The pole winner was Kevin Harvick (27.918 at 193.424). Rounding out the top 12 were: Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Matt Kenseth, Jones, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Truex, Clint Bowyer, Brad Keselowski, Jamie McMurray, and Kurt Busch.
Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 will air live beginning at 6 p.m. ET on Fox, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90 and PRN.