Martin Truex Jr. will start on the pole at Richmond Raceway on Saturday in the No. 78 5-hour Energy / Bass Pro Shops Toyota. Truex, the reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion, will start on the pole for the third time of the season in the premier series after posting a 21.799, 123.859 mph. in the final round.
Truex led round one and sat fourth in round two. The series veteran enters the weekend with five top five and five top 10 finishes through eight races this year.
Chase Elliott will start second on the race leaderboard after a 21.841, 123.621 mph. in the final round of knockout qualifying. The driver of the No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet comes into Richmond Raceway looking to score his first career win in the premier series and sat 0.042 seconds behind pole sitter Martin Truex Jr. The young racer has one top five and three top 10 finishes this season.
Joey Logano will round out the top three starters on Saturday in the No. 22 Shell / Pennzoil Ford. Logano posted a 21.848, 123.581 mph. in the the final round to take the third starting spot. The driver from Connecticut sat sixth in round one and third in round two.
Round two leader Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson will round out the top five starters.
Several big name drivers failed to make the second round of qualifying and will start 25th on back. Some of these drivers included Aric Almirola (25th), Daniel Suarez (26th), Brad Keselowski (28th), Kasey Kahne (29th), Kyle Busch (32nd) and AJ Allmendinger (33rd).
Daniel Hemric will be making his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut and will start 22nd on Saturday. Hemric finished round one sitting 23rd in the No. 8 Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing.
There were no DNQ’s as 38 drivers appeared on the weekend entry list.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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