Furniture Row Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. qualified fifth and teammate Erik Jones qualified eighth for Sunday’s ISM Connect 300 NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Truex will start the No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Toyota from the inside of Row 3 after a pole-round lap of 28.384 seconds at 134.188 mph. It was the 18th top-five qualifying effort of the season for Truex, who leads the NASCAR point standings after one race of the 10-race playoffs.
Truex, who was fourth fastest in the earlier practice, wanted to do one more lap in the final qualifying session, but time ran out.
“I thought we were close but we only got one lap in the final round and I definitely felt we could have picked up in the second lap,” explained Truex Jr. “Fifth is still a good starting spot here and we’ll be fine. We’ve unlocked the keys to this track and have come close to winning here recently. We just need to close it out on Sunday.”
Jones will start the No. 77 5-hour ENERGY Extra Strength Toyota from the outside of Row 4 after a final-round lap of 28.430 at 133.971. It was the 13th top-10 qualifying effort of the season for the NASCAR Cup Series rookie.
“The 5-hour ENERGY Toyota was tight in both the second and third rounds so we just didn’t have the speed we needed,” said Jones. “We never got quite where we wanted but it was a decent effort we can race from for sure on Sunday.”
Kyle Busch won the pole with a lap of 28.203 at 135.049. The balance of the top-12 qualifiers were: Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Truex, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Jones, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, and Jimmie Johnson.
Sunday’s race will air live beginning at noon MT (12 p.m. MDT) on NBCSN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and MRN.