DARLINGTON, S.C. — Martin Truex Jr. will lead the field to the green flag for Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway after winning the pole on Saturday.
Truex had a fastest speed of 169.409, topping 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace by a mere 0.012 seconds.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has begun to find a groove recently with a victory at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway and a solid eighth place result at Kansas Speedway. While each week is a different animal, momentum seems to be in the No. 19 Toyota Camry team’s favor.
“It’s so hard to know, but it feels that way,” Truex said. “I just think it’s a matter of everything coming together with your team. Our cars are fast, we’re executing and things are coming together lately and it feels like momentum, but it’s just things coming together.
“It’s a lot, it take a lot to be running good in this series at this level consistently and I think when all those things comes together, it’s momentum. But it’s also a lot coming together behind the scenes. It’s not just some crazy thing that falls out of the sky.”
Behind Truex and Wallace was a five-car Chevrolet brigade, led by Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr., William Byron, Ross Chastain, Daniel Suarez and Kyle Larson.
Two Toyota’s of Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick followed suit, with Brad Keselowski rounding out the top 10.