Truex
tops Logano for pole at Martinsville
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[October 29, 2016]
By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
Distributed by The Sports Xchange
MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Martin Truex Jr.'s
ouster from the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup didn't affect his
qualifying prowess.
A week after winning the pole at Talladega, only to exit the race
and the Chase with a blown engine, Truex posted his second straight
top qualifying effort at Martinsville Speedway, winning the pole for
Sunday's Goody's Fast Relief 500 (1 p.m. ET, NBCSN).
In collecting his first Coors Light Pole Award at the .526-mile
short track, his fifth of the season and the 12th of his career,
Truex edged Talladega winner Joey Logano by .008 seconds in running
98.206 mph in the third and final round of knockout qualifying.
By that razor-thin margin, Truex ended Logano's streak of three
consecutive poles at Martinsville. And the top qualifying run earned
Truex the right to choose pit stall No. 1, closest to the exit from
pit road and an unquestioned advantage for the pole-winning driver.
"This place is just so tough, and that first pit stall is just so
critical to having a shot at winning here," Truex said. "I would
love to get my first grandfather clock (the winner's trophy). After
last week, this helps a little bit. All in all, just proud of the
guys for coming here with a game plan and executing.
"It's no guarantee that we'll race well on Sunday, but it's
definitely a nice advantage if you have a good race car to be able
to make up spots on pit road and not have to worry about getting
blocked in and all those things. It's a definite advantage, and
hopefully we can have a good car to take advantage of it."
Logano took his close call with a fourth straight pole
philosophically.
"So close to getting that fourth pole in a row," Logano said. "It
would have been pretty cool to be able to say you did that, but it's
been a great streak. ... Starting up front is important here at
Martinsville. We've proven that before. We'll be able to get a good
pit stall, which is a lot of opportunity to take advantage of that
here.
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"It gives us a good start to get a good rhythm into this long race
and get our car tuned up to where we want to, and get the
grandfather clock when we're done. We're not in the business of
getting poles. We're in the business of winning races. A lot of
times that takes winning the pole, but in general we want to win the
race."
Neither Truex nor Logano has won at Martinsville, but the Chase
driver starting third, Jimmie Johnson (97.840 mph), has eight
victories at the track. In addition to Logano and Johnson, Chase
drivers and Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin
and Kyle Busch earned the seventh, eighth and ninth spots on the
grid, respectively.
The three remaining Chase drivers in the Round of 8 failed to
advance to the final round. Matt Kenseth will start 17th on Sunday,
with Kevin Harvick 20th and Kurt Busch 23rd.
NOTES: AJ Allmendinger, runner-up at Martinsville in April, will
start fourth, his second-best qualifying effort of the season (he
was second on the grid for the road course race at Sonoma in June).
... Chase Elliott and Tony Stewart will line up fifth and sixth,
respectively. ... Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wheel-hopped into the Turn 1
wall just over six minutes into the first round on Friday and will
start Sunday's race in a backup car. ... Austin Dillon also scraped
the wall in the first round, but his team was attempting to repair
the No. 3 Chevrolet. Eliminated from the Chase last week at
Talladega, Dillon will start 32nd on Sunday.
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