For the first two rounds of the three round knockout qualifying Friday night, Joey Logano was the class of the field. At the end of the day however it was Martin Truex Jr. celebrating the pole for Sunday nights NASCAR Sprint Cup series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Logano, who won last weeks NASCAR Sprint All-Star race, led the first two sessions was the fastest of the final 12 cars early in the final five minutes with a lap of 192.007, but near the 2 minute 30 second mark, Truex went out, put down a lap of 192.328 and secured his 9th career pole.
“It feels awesome.,” Truex said. “Obviously proud of my team for the effort. We really had to work pretty hard for it today. It was just one of them Charlotte deals where things were continuously changing and we were just chasing the race track and changing the car. Just really never got it really close to right until that last adjustment so really just proud of the effort, proud of my guys for that and it feels good – 600 miles, that first pit stall.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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