LONG POND, Pa. (June 1, 2018) – Martin Truex Jr. qualified fourth for Sunday’s Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway.
His No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/5-hour ENERGY Toyota ran a pole-round lap of 50.987 seconds at 176.516 mph on the 2.5-mile “Tricky Triangle.” The Furniture Row Racing entry will start the 160-lap, 400-mile race on the outside of Row 2.
Truex finished sixth in each of the first two rounds of qualifying.
“I got pretty loose in Turn 3,” said Truex of his pole-round lap. “We had a really good car. This place is just so sensitive. You have to hit your marks perfect here. I felt like I hit one turn perfect in each round – I just didn’t hit all three perfect in the same round. Round three was our fastest round of the day, which is always what you want. You want to get faster through each round which we did today. We accomplished that. We just left a little out there and I was just talking with Cole (Pearn, crew chief) about what I can do. I felt like we had the car to contend for the pole, I just didn’t do a perfect job today. And around here, you have to be perfect.”
Ryan Blaney earned the pole position. The balance of the top-12 qualifiers were, in order: Kevin Harvick, Jamie McMurray, Truex, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Joey Logano, Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, and Austin Dillon.
Sunday’s Pocono 400 will air live beginning at noon MT (2 p.m. ET) on FS1, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and MRN.
