MARTINSVILLE, Va. — It’s been a rough start to the season for Ryan Preece in the NASCAR Cup Series, who sits 28th in points after eight races.
Despite the tumultuous start, Preece began to right the ship on Saturday afternoon, placing his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford on the pole for Sunday’s Noco 400 at Martinsville Speedway.
Preece had a fastest speed of 94.78 mph, narrowly edging out Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez.
“A lot of anticipation for tomorrow. As a race car driver you want to come here, you want to compete, you want to win races and I know my team is capable of that,” Preece said. “I know I’m capable of that. I know my crew chief is capable of that. It’s really just been trying to put it all together and get the finishes that you feel you deserve. It’s nice to not be starting in the back for one week.
“We have such a fast HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang and I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.”
Stewart-Haas Racing had all four cars qualify in the top 10, with Aric Almirola qualifying third, followed by Chase Briscoe in fifth and Kevin Harvick slotting in seventh.
Three Toyota entries placed in the top 10, including Martin Truex Jr. in fifth, Tyler Reddick in sixth and Bubba Wallace in ninth.
William Byron was the lone Chevrolet driver to qualify within the front five rows, placing eighth.
In his first qualifying session back from an injury suffered six weeks ago, Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott qualified 24th aboard the No. 9 Chevrolet.