Martin Truex Jr. captured the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at ISM Raceway near Phoenix.
Truex, driving the No. 78 5-hour ENERGY/Bass Pro Shops Toyota, saved the best for last Friday after posting the sixth fastest speeds (134.811 and 135.864 mph) in the first two rounds on the 1-mile oval.
The Furniture Row Racing driver kicked it up a couple of notches in the pole shootout money round with a lap run of 26.288 seconds at 136.945 mph.
It was the 16th career pole for Truex, his second at ISM Raceway and first of the season.
“It was a good run — we worked really hard coming here, knowing what we’ve done here in the past,” Truex said. “We’ve run well, but we never could quite get it just right to go for the pole. I think we were fifth (in qualifying) here last fall.
“We had a good game plan coming here and I had to adjust my driving a little bit and the guys made adjustments to the car and it all played into our hands. Just really proud of everybody on this 5-hour ENERGY/Bass Pro Shops Toyota team.”
Qualifying positions 2-12 went to: Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Jamie McMurray, Erik Jones, Kevin Harvick, William Byron and Ryan Blaney.
Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 will be televised on the FOX network, 1:30 p.m. MT (12:30 p.m. Phoenix time).
Featured Image Credit: Furniture Row Racing, Twitter