Truex wins pole for Coke 600
By The Associated Press
Martin Truex Jr. put himself in good position for another strong showing at the Coca-Cola 600, a race he thought he should have won last year.
Truex turned a lap of 192.328 to grab the pole away from Joey Logano on his final lap of qualifying Thursday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.
Logano, who had the top time in the first two rounds, will start alongside Truex on the front row Sunday night in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
“We put it all together when it counted,” Truex said.
Truex was running strong last year at the CocaCola 600, but Carl Edwards stayed on the track rather than pit and won, getting 62 laps out of his final tank of gas to win the 400-lap race.
It was a disappointing outcome for Truex, who finishing fifth in 2015. “I really thought we were going to go to victory lane but we lost on fuel mileage,” Truex said.
Truex said he’s happy with how he has been running this season and believes he had a good chance to make up for last season’s disappointment.
It is Truex’s second pole in the past three Sprint Cup races. He also started first at Kansas.
He has yet to win this season. And he knows Logano will be tough to beat.
Logano has won the past two races at Charlotte, including the $1 million AllStar race Saturday night. He also won at the track in October.
“My confidence is high,” Logano said. “The momentum is rolling. Maybe some of these rule changes have fallen into our hands as a team, or maybe in my lap as a driver. Overall it is working.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will start third, Denny Hamlin fourth and Brad Keselowski fifth. Greg Biffle was sixth fastest in qualifying and Jimmie Johnson seventh. Sprint Cup points leader Kevin Harvick will start eighth.
Elsewhere
NASCAR will make more aerodynamic changes to promote improved competition at upcoming races at Michigan and Kentucky. The changes to the rear spoiler, front splitter and rear deck fin will help NASCAR continue to reduce downforce and sideforce as it attempts to put the handling of the cars back in the hands of the drivers. NASCAR has been tweaking the package at the request of the drivers, who favor less downforce.