Truex Jr. takes Coke 600 pole

Martin Truex Jr. has scored the pole for NASCAR’s longest race, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The Toyota driver took his ninth career pole and second of the season with a lap speed of 309.522km/h (192.328 mph).

“I liked what I felt last year and I’ve been thinking about this race a lot since then,” said Truex Jr.

“We had a really good car that day and thought we were going to go to victory lane and got beat on fuel mileage.”

After being the fastest man in the opening two rounds of qualifying, Team Penske’s Joey Logano settled for the second-quickest time.

“We had speed just not quite enough there for the pole,” said Logano, who last week won the All-Star event at the same track.

“But we’ve been getting better here since we started practice. The track is going to change so much Sunday after the sun goes down so we’ll work on things Saturday and be ready to make adjustments when the race rolls around.”

Row 2 will be filled by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Denny Hamlin.

Defending race winner Carl Edwards came in ninth on the speed charts in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

VIDEO: Truex Jr. speaks after qualifying

QUALIFYING: Coca-Cole 600 – Charlotte Motor Speedway

POS.	CAR #	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	MPH	TIME	BEHIND
1	78	Martin Truex Jr		Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats	192.328	28.077	Leader
2	22	Joey Logano		Shell Pennzoil	192.007	28.124	–0.047
3	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr		Fastenal Ford Fusion	191.428	28.209	–0.132
4	11	Denny Hamlin		FedEx Freight	191.388	28.215	–0.138
5	2	Brad Keselowski		Miller Lite	190.968	28.277	–0.200
6	16	Greg Biffle		Cheez-It Ford Fusion	190.503	28.346	–0.269
7	48	Jimmie Johnson		Lowe’s Patriotic	190.282	28.379	–0.302
8	4	Kevin Harvick		Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS	190.268	28.381	–0.304
9	19	Carl Edwards		Subway	189.853	28.443	–0.366
10	6	Trevor Bayne		Advocare Ford Fusion	189.587	28.483	–0.406
11	27	Paul Menard		Knauf / Menards	189.162	28.547	–0.470
12	24	Chase Elliott		NAPA Auto Parts	187.963	28.729	–0.652
13	41	Kurt Busch		Monster Energy / Haas Automation Chevrolet SS	190.114	28.404	–0.327
14	31	Ryan Newman		Whelen	189.927	28.432	–0.355
15	47	AJ Allmendinger		Harris Teeter / Bush’s Beans	189.853	28.443	–0.366
16	18	Kyle Busch		M&M’s RWB	189.820	28.448	–0.371
17	13	Casey Mears		GEICO	189.820	28.448	–0.371
18	21	Ryan Blaney		Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire + Auto Center	189.807	28.450	–0.373
19	10	Danica Patrick		Nature’s Bakery	189.527	28.492	–0.415
20	43	Aric Almirola		U.S. Air Force	189.274	28.530	–0.453
21	14	Tony Stewart		Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS	189.188	28.543	–0.466
22	34	Chris Buescher		CSX – Play It Safe	188.673	28.621	–0.544
23	1	Jamie McMurray		Cessna/McDonald’s	188.508	28.646	–0.569
24	42	Kyle Larson		Target	187.931	28.734	–0.657
25	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr		Nationwide	188.851	28.594	–0.517
26	15	Clint Bowyer		5-Hour Energy	188.659	28.623	–0.546
27	20	Matt Kenseth		DeWalt	188.534	28.642	–0.565
28	3	Austin Dillon		Cheerios	188.515	28.645	–0.568
29	5	Kasey Kahne		LiftMaster	188.376	28.666	–0.589
30	44	Brian Scott		Twisted Tea	188.016	28.721	–0.644
31	7	Regan Smith		Nikko RC / Toy State Chevrolet	187.480	28.803	–0.726
32	95	Michael McDowell		Thrivent Financial	187.266	28.836	–0.759
33	38	Landon Cassill		MDS Transport / We Hire Vets	187.201	28.846	–0.769
34	83	Matt DiBenedetto		Hope for the Warriors & Cosmo Motors	186.955	28.884	–0.807
35	23	David Ragan		Bubba Burger	186.780	28.911	–0.834
36	98	Cole Whitt		VYDOX Plus	185.586	29.097	–1.020
37	30	Josh Wise		Curtis Key Plumbing	183.181	29.479	–1.402
38	46	Michael Annett		Pilot Flying J	183.088	29.494	–1.417
39	32	Jeffrey Earnhardt		Can – Am	180.717	29.881	–1.804
40	55	Reed Sorenson		World Record Striper Company	179.432	30.095	–2.018