Martin Truex Jr. missed the pole position at Sonoma Raceway by less than one-tenth-of-a-second and will start the No. 78 5-hour ENERGY/Bass Pro Shops Toyota from the outside of the front row for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350.
Truex lapped the 11-turn, 1.99-mile road course in 75.822 seconds at 94.484 mph, 0.090-of-a-second slower than pole winner Kyle Larson’s lap of 75.732 at 94.597. Truex was second in the first round of qualifying with a lap of 76.019 at 94.240.
“I missed a little bit in turn two, I think,” said Truex. “I missed my line and bumped the corner more than I would have liked to and I was a little late getting back to the gas there. I think I lost some time exiting two. Overall it was a really good lap.
“Our 5-hour ENERGY/Bass Pro Shops Camry has been really fast. I feel like we have a really good race car, better than we had in qualifying. Excited to race here, I love this place and hopefully we can get it done tomorrow.”
The balance of the top-12 qualifiers were Chase Elliott, Jamie McMurray, AJ Allmendinger, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, William Byron, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, and Joey Logano.
Sunday’s 110-lap 218.9-mile race will air live beginning at 1 p.m. MT (3 p.m. ET) on FS1, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and PRN.