'Martin Truex Jr. steals the spotlight from Playoff contenders with pole-winning performance at Martinsville'
MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Martin Truex Jr. may not be in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, but the experienced driver still has significant objectives, as evidenced by his pole-winning performance on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway.
Following a final-round lap at 96.190 mph (19.686 seconds), Truex will lead the field in Sunday's Xfinity 500 (2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Behind and beside him, six Playoff contenders, led by second-place starter Chase Elliott, will begin their battle for the final two spots in the Nov. 10 Championship 4 Race at Phoenix Raceway.
On the other end of the spectrum, Playoff driver Denny Hamlin, Truex's teammate, will start from the back after a strange accident in practice damaged his No. 11 Toyota, preventing him from completing a qualifying run.
"I feel very confident about our car on new tires," said Truex, who was 0.049 seconds faster than third-place starter William Byron, who posted a lap at 95.951 mph (19.735 seconds) in the final round. "You never want to get too optimistic, but I had a great start in practice, especially on the second run when the track was more rubbered-in.
"I was thinking, 'If we can just find the right balance for qualifying, we should be really fast.'"
Earlier this year, Truex announced his plans to retire from full-time racing at the end of the season.
"We have two more opportunities to win," said Truex, who earned his third pole at Martinsville, his first of the season, and the 24th of his career. "We want it badly, we're working hard, we're not giving up, and hopefully, we can achieve it for everyone."
Although he was the fifth fastest in the final round, Elliott will start second because he was the quickest of the five qualifiers in Group A. This left Byron in third, Chase Briscoe in fourth, and Ty Gibbs in fifth.
Harrison Burton, Alex Bowman, Ryan Preece, Kyle Larson, and Austin Dillon will start from positions six through 10, respectively. The three Hendrick Motorsports drivers -- Elliott, Byron, and Larson -- are the only Playoff contenders in the top 10 on the starting grid.
The remaining Playoff drivers qualified as follows: Joey Logano 12th, Ryan Blaney 14th, Christopher Bell 16th, and Tyler Reddick 31st. Logano and Reddick have already secured their spots in the Championship 4 with wins at Las Vegas and Homestead-Miami, respectively.
As qualifying progressed, Hamlin's team was attempting to repair his primary car, which hit the Turn 3 wall when the throttle became stuck during practice due to a piece of rubber that had entered the throttle body.
"We had just gone back out, we had just made an adjustment to the car, and it was doing everything it needed to do," Hamlin said. "It was navigating through the pack quite well. I entered Turn 3, and the car didn't slow down, and the throttle stuck on us. The throttle had no chance of coming back.
"That definitely caught me off guard, but it happens. We were just unlucky."
Truex sympathized with his teammate's misfortune but was not concerned about a similar situation occurring with his car.
"About as much as I'm worried about being struck by lightning," Truex joked. "One-in-a-million. I don't know how it happened -- his number just came up."
--By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service. Special to Field Level Media
