Martin Truex Jr. was the last driver on track in the pole round of qualifying, rocketing to the top of the charts with a 19.686s lap that denied Hendrick Motorsports a front row lockout.
"I felt great about our car on stickers," said Truex, who also led the way in Cup practice. "You know, you never want to get too optimistic but it fired off really good in practice -- especially that second run when the track rubbered in.
"I was like: 'Alright, if we can just hit the balance here for qualifying it should be really fast.' Proud of James [Small, crew chief] and all of the guys and everyone back at JGR and at TRD. We haven't had a whole lot of good going for us lately. This feels awesome. Anytime you're first at anything in this series is special and exciting. We got some work to do for tomorrow, but hopefully we can make a gain on it and have a good day."
This is Truex's 24th career pole and his first of the 2024 season. His last P1 start came at this very race one year ago. Truex is also winless in his last full-time season of competition, which he hopes to change in the final two weeks.
"Two more chances to win," said Truex. "We want it bad. We are working hard. We are not giving up and hopefully we can get one for everyone."
Truex will share the front row with Chase Elliott, who was the highest-qualifying playoff driver. William Byron was third, Chase Briscoe fourth, and Ty Gibbs fifth. Rounding out the remainder of the top-ten was Harrison Burton, Alex Bowman, Ryan Preece, Kyle Larson, and Austin Dillon.
Round 1
In Group A qualifying, the Stewart-Haas Racing drivers impressed with Briscoe and teammate Preece topping the charts, followed by Elliott and Burton. Dillon was the final driver to advance, beating Championship 4-bound Joey Logano by 0.025s.
Ryan Blaney, facing a likely must-win, qualified 14th. Christopher Bell, who sits 29 points above the cut-line, was a surprisingly mediocre 16th while the two drivers chasing him moved forward to the pole round.
In Group B, Truex led the way there with an astonishing 19.584s lap -- over a tenth faster than his eventual pole run. He was joined by the Hendrick trio of Byron, Bowman and Larson, as well as JGR teammate Gibbs. Larson was the final driver to advance, besting Josh Berry by 0.029s.
Tyler Reddick, who locked himself into the Championship 4 with a dramatic last-lap pass at Homestead, made an error on his fast lap and will start 31st. However, the lowest-starting playoff driver will be the one who did not even take part. After the throttle stuck in practice, Denny Hamlin's No. 11 car sustained significant rear end damage. Hamlin did not participate in qualifying as the team makes extensive repairs to the car. He will start 37th (last) on Sunday, 18 points below the cut-line.
