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Truex scores pole position at Talladega

Martin Truex Jr. won his fourth pole of 2016 at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday.

Polesitter Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing Toyota

Polesitter Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing Toyota

NASCAR Media

The team’s issue with a modified jack screw in pre-qualifying inspection didn’t slow the results of Truex or the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing car. 

“That’s bad ass,” Truex said after posting a lap of 193.423mph. “You guys rock.”

For Truex, it was his 11th career pole in NASCAR's Cup Series. His game plan for Sunday?  Be “cautiously-aggressive” over the 188 laps in the Hellmann’s 500.

Three fellow Chasers followed Truex. Brad Keselowski was second with a lap of 193.365mph.

"It’s good to qualify up front,"  Keselowski said following his run. "I think it’s a good confidence boost.  I feel like when we have cars that qualify well here, we race well.  The Miller Lite Ford was really fast here in qualifying and hopefully it will stay the same for Sunday.”

Matt Kenseth was third (193.189mph) followed by Chase Elliott (193.166mph), the Roush Fenway Racing Fords of Greg Biffle (193.123mph) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (192.975mph).

Rounding out the top 12 were Kurt Busch (192.746mph), Denny Hamlin (192.610mph), Austin Dillon (192.177mph), Paul Menard (192.123mph), Trevor Bayne (192.039mph) and Reed Sorenson (188.300mph).

The final 12 qualifiers were evenly split among manufacturers with four representatives from each.

Round 1

Reed Sorenson was the fifth car on the track in the first round of qualifying and shot to the top of the board with a lap of 194.145mph (49.324-seconds).

Martin Truex Jr. posted the second fastest lap (192.870mph), followed by Brad Keselowski (192.800mph), Matt Kenseth (192,754mph) and Chase Elliott (192.537mph). Also transferring to the final round were Kurt Busch (192.343mph), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (192.332mph), Paul Menard (192.254mph), Denny Hamlin (192.239mph), Austin Dillon and Trevor Bayne, who both posted a lap of 192.197mph.

While waiting in line to make their first round qualifying runs, NASCAR inspectors required the teams of Hamlin, Kenseth and Kyle Busch to make an adjustment to the top of their left-rear quarter panels. After making the adjustments, the teams were required to go back through inspection before making their qualifying runs, which all three did. Busch qualified 14th, just barely missing the cutoff.

Ryan Reed, who will make his Sprint Cup debut on Sunday, qualified 18th.

“Our goal was to make the race and we did that, but you always get a little greedy,” Reed said. “Yesterday I was like, ‘Man, we might have a shot for the pole.’ We brought a really fast Ford Fusion down here and I’m really stoked to put it in the show. I

“So I’m obviously excited to make my debut and can sleep good tonight knowing that we’re gonna be in the show and have some fun tomorrow.”

Cla#DriverManufacturerTimeGapMph
1 78  Martin Truex Jr.  Toyota 49.508   49.508
2 2  Brad Keselowski  Ford 49.523 0.015 49.523
3 20  Matt Kenseth  Toyota 49.568 0.060 49.568
4 24  Chase Elliott  Chevrolet 49.574 0.066 49.574
5 16  Greg Biffle  Ford 49.585 0.077 49.585
6 17  Ricky Stenhouse Jr.  Ford 49.623 0.115 49.623
7 41  Kurt Busch  Chevrolet 49.682 0.174 49.682
8 11  Denny Hamlin  Toyota 49.717 0.209 49.717
9 3  Austin Dillon  Chevrolet 49.829 0.321 49.829
10 27  Paul Menard  Chevrolet 49.843 0.335 49.843

CLICK HERE for complete starting lineup

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