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 |
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