Martin Truex Jr. once again saved the best for last in qualifying as the Furniture Row Racing driver won the pole Friday for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway in Southern California.
It was the second consecutive pole for Truex, who also claimed the No. 1 qualifying spot in last week’s race at Phoenix. The last time Truex captured back-to-back poles was in 2016 at the fall races in Talladega and Martinsville.
Truex was third fastest in the first round of qualifying, ninth in the second and then stepped it up for the pole shootout round. His No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry covered the 2-mile oval in 38.592 seconds at 186.577 miles per hour.
Kyle Busch was second fastest (38.619 at 186.437), making it an all-Toyota front row.
“Proud of everybody on this Furniture Row Racing team and want to thank TRD (Toyota Racing Development) for our engines,” Truex said. “You’re always on the edge at this track and I slipped a little in the second round, but then came back to run a solid lap in the final round in our Bass Pro Shops/5-hour ENERGY Camry. This is the way you want to start a weekend — winning the pole and having the first pit stall selection. I really like this track and feel we can make something happen on Sunday.”
Truex enters the Auto Club 400 with three straight top-five finishes.
Starting positions 3-12 will be: Kyle Larson, Erik Jones, Austin Dillon, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Ryan Blaney, Ryan Newman, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher.
Sunday’s race will be televised on the FOX network, 3:30 p.m. ET (1:30 MT, 12:30 PT).
Featured Image Credit: Furniture Row Racing Twitter