WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Two-time Watkins Glen winner Chase Elliott will lead the field to the green flag for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race at Watkins Glen International.
Elliott laid down a 70.477 second lap time around the road course to edge out teammate Kyle Larson for the top spot.
The current NASCAR Cup Series points leader described his outlook for Sunday after notching his fourth pole of the season.
“Honestly, my mindset and my focus right now is really just about trying to give ourselves a shot to win tomorrow,” Elliott said. “That’s the best way to achieve the most points is to go out there and be the first person to cross the line at the end of the day. That’s really where our heads at and where our goals lie, is trying to execute a perfect race tomorrow. Obviously that’s a really hard thing to do. We’d love to keep our track position all day.
“I understand that’s a difficult thing to achieve, but not impossible. We’ve seen it done before. So, try and put together a good day, try to stay mistake-free, and make the most of a good qualifying effort.”
Michael McDowell, who needs a win to secure a berth in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, will start third.
The Chevrolet’s of William Byron, Tyler Reddick and road course ace A.J. Allmendinger rounded out the top six.
The lone Toyota driver to advance to the final round was Kyle Busch, who would qualify 10th.
Amidst the Toyota struggles across the board, Martin Truex Jr. will start Sunday’s race behind the 8-ball in 25th position.
Truex, who sits 26 points behind Ryan Blaney for the final playoff spot, wasn’t very optimistic after his qualifying outing.
“We did a tire test here awhile back, and felt much better than I feel today,” Truex said. “Tried some new things, tried to implement some of the things we feel like we’ve gotten better at on the road courses throughout the year. Just lacking overall grip out there, just sliding around a lot.”
“Pretty much the whole year on road courses we’ve been perplexed, so not really that surprising.”
In his first NASCAR Cup Series qualifying effort, Kimi Raikkonen wheeled his No. 91 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet to 27th place in the lineup.