Martin Truex Jr. has taken his first pole position of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season setting the fast time for the Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
It his second pole at Texas and the seventh of his career. The driver of the No. 56 Toyota posted a lap at 306.3692 km/h (28.366 seconds) to edge defending race winner Matt Kenseth (306.0135 km/h) for the top starting spot.
Kenseth was .004 seconds faster than championship leader and Roush Fenway team-mate Greg Biffle.
With the pole secure, Truex will try to win his first race since June 2007, when he claimed his only Cup victory at Dover.
“That’s our main goal,” said Truex.
“This team’s good enough. We can get to Victory Lane. We’re going to do it soon. I feel good about this team. I’m just having so much fun coming to the race track and driving these cars.
“We’re going to make them proud here pretty quick.”
A very positive qualifying session for Australia’s Marcos Ambrose who qualified his Ford in seventh spot.
“That was one of our best efforts this season,” said Ambrose.
“We’re happy that we’re going to be starting up front, but I think we’re more happy that we have a good car for the race.
“This starting spot will make it easier on us tomorrow night. We want this Stanley Ford Fusion up there all night.”
The race will be run tomorrow morning Australian time with coverage on One HD and SPEED from 9am (Eastern Standard Time).
RACE LINEUP : Samsung Mobile 500 | Texas Motor Speedway
|
POS |
CAR |
DRIVER |
MAKE |
SPONSOR |
MPH |
TIME |
BEHIND |
| 1 | 56 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | NAPA Auto Parts | 190.369 | 28.366 | Leader |
| 2 | 17 | Matt Kenseth | Ford | Best Buy | 190.148 | 28.399 | -0.033 |
| 3 | 16 | Greg Biffle | Ford | 3M Filtrete | 190.121 | 28.403 | -0.037 |
| 4 | 55 | Mark Martin | Toyota | Aaron’s 2011 Best of the Best | 190.020 | 28.418 | -0.052 |
| 5 | 5 | Kasey Kahne | Chevrolet | Farmers Insurance | 189.633 | 28.476 | -0.110 |
| 6 | 39 | Ryan Newman | Chevrolet | U.S. Army | 189.494 | 28.497 | -0.131 |
| 7 | 9 | Marcos Ambrose | Ford | Stanley | 189.467 | 28.501 | -0.135 |
| 8 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Dodge | Miller Lite | 189.381 | 28.514 | -0.148 |
| 9 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Boats | 189.294 | 28.527 | -0.161 |
| 10 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | Lowe’s / Kobalt Tools | 189.281 | 28.529 | -0.163 |
| 11 | 27 | Paul Menard | Chevrolet | Quaker State / Menards | 189.082 | 28.559 | -0.193 |
| 12 | 22 | AJ Allmendinger | Dodge | Shell / Pennzoil | 189.023 | 28.568 | -0.202 |
| 13 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | FedEx Office / March of Dimes | 188.884 | 28.589 | -0.223 |
| 14 | 20 | Joey Logano | Toyota | Dollar General | 188.805 | 28.601 | -0.235 |
| 15 | 29 | Kevin Harvick | Chevrolet | Budweiser | 188.653 | 28.624 | -0.258 |
| 16 | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Chevrolet | Diet Mountain Dew / National Guard | 188.442 | 28.656 | -0.290 |
| 17 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | Interstate Batteries | 188.298 | 28.678 | -0.312 |
| 18 | 15 | Clint Bowyer | Toyota | 5-hour Energy | 188.291 | 28.679 | -0.313 |
| 19 | 21 | Trevor Bayne | Ford | Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center | 188.186 | 28.695 | -0.329 |
| 20 | 99 | Carl Edwards | Ford | Fastenal | 187.957 | 28.730 | -0.364 |
| 21 | 34 | David Ragan | Ford | Scorpion Truck Bed Liners | 187.872 | 28.743 | -0.377 |
| 22 | 13 | Casey Mears | Ford | GEICO | 187.813 | 28.752 | -0.386 |
| 23 | 43 | Aric Almirola | Ford | Smithfield | 187.748 | 28.762 | -0.396 |
| 24 | 31 | Jeff Burton | Chevrolet | Caterpillar | 187.676 | 28.773 | -0.407 |
| 25 | 42 | Juan Montoya | Chevrolet | Target | 187.539 | 28.794 | -0.428 |
| 26 | 78 | Regan Smith | Chevrolet | Furniture Row / Farm American | 187.292 | 28.832 | -0.466 |
| 27 | 51 | Kurt Busch | Chevrolet | Phoenix Construction Services | 187.182 | 28.849 | -0.483 |
| 28 | 83 | Landon Cassill | Toyota | Burger King / Dr Pepper | 187.110 | 28.860 | -0.494 |
| 29 | 14 | Tony Stewart | Chevrolet | Mobil 1 Advanced Fuel Economy / Office Depot | 186.994 | 28.878 | -0.512 |
| 30 | 47 | Bobby Labonte | Toyota | Bush’s Baked Beans | 186.981 | 28.880 | -0.514 |
| 31 | 10 | David Reutimann | Chevrolet | Accell Construction | 186.664 | 28.929 | -0.563 |
| 32 | 26 | Josh Wise* | Ford | Morristown Driver’s Service | 186.361 | 28.976 | -0.610 |
| 33 | 98 | Michael McDowell | Ford | Curb Records | 185.925 | 29.044 | -0.678 |
| 34 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | Chevrolet | DuPont 20 Years | 185.605 | 29.094 | -0.728 |
| 35 | 38 | David Gilliland | Ford | ModSpace | 185.605 | 29.094 | -0.728 |
| 36 | 249 | J.J. Yeley | Toyota | JPO Absorbents | 185.542 | 29.104 | -0.738 |
| 37 | 93 | Travis Kvapil | Toyota | Dr Pepper | 185.191 | 29.159 | -0.793 |
| 38 | 195 | Scott Speed | Ford | Tommy Williams Drywall | 185.122 | 29.170 | -0.804 |
| 39 | 32 | Reed Sorenson | Ford | Jani-King | 184.824 | 29.217 | -0.851 |
| 40 | 23 | Scott Riggs | Chevrolet | North Texas Pipe / Embassy Suites | 184.748 | 29.229 | -0.863 |
| 41 | 119 | Mike Bliss | Toyota | Humphrey Smith Racing | 184.729 | 29.232 | -0.866 |
| 42 | 30 | David Stremme | Toyota | Inception Motorsports | 184.716 | 29.234 | -0.868 |
| 43 | 87 | Joe Nemechek | Toyota | AMFMEnergy.com / Pellet & Wood Stoves | 184.376 | 29.288 | -0.922 |
| DNQ | 36 | Dave Blaney | Chevrolet | Jimmie Johnson’s Anything With an Engine | 183.275 | 29.464 | -1.098 |
| DNQ | 33 | Tony Raines | Chevrolet | Precon Marine | 181.824 | 29.699 | -1.333 |
| DNQ | 74 | Stacy Compton | Chevrolet | Turn One Racing | 181.038 | 29.828 | -1.462 |
* Rookie
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