Martin Truex Jr. captured the pole for Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Truex’s qualifying effort Saturday was his fourth pole of 2016, establishing a personal season best for the Furniture Row Racing driver. It was also his 11th career pole and his first at Talladega.
Truex’s No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER BOATS Toyota was the second fastest in the first session of qualifying at the 2.66-mile oval. He recorded a lap time and speed of 49.650 seconds at 192.870 miles per hour.
In the second and final session, Truex’s Toyota posted a lap of 49.508 at 193.423, edging Brad Keselowski, who ran a 49.523 at 193.365.
“You come here and you don’t really have a whole lot to say as a driver when it comes to qualifying, so obviously I am proud of the team and proud of everybody in Denver and proud of everybody at the race track for their efforts,” said Truex. “They built a brand new car to come here and it’s awesome to be the fastest guy in town.
“I am excited about that and obviously everybody at TRD (Toyota Racing Development) who builds the engines has done a great job too – it takes a lot to get a restrictor plate pole. I am so excited for all those guys and really neat to lead Toyota to their 1,000th start tomorrow. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get the victory when the day is over.”
Truex enters the final race of Round 2 of the Chase with a 13-point margin to be one of the eight drivers advancing to the next round of the playoffs.
“We’re going to try and be cautiously aggressive tomorrow,” explained Truex. “If things get out of hand and feel like we’re in a danger zone then maybe we’ll move out of there and find a place to chill out for a while, but I still think the best place to be is out front leading laps and I think our car is strong enough to be able to do that. This is the fastest car we’ve had here in a few years and to get the pole is awesome.”
Qualifying positions 3-12 went to: Matt Kenseth, Chase Elliott, Greg Biffle, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Paul Menard, Trevor Bayne and Reed Sorenson.
Sunday’s Hellmann’s 500 will be televised on NBC Sports Network, noon MT (1 p.m. Talladega time).