On his final lap – the final lap of qualifying Saturday afternoon – Stewart-Haas Racing’s Ryan Preece topped the competition to earn his first career NASCAR Cup Series Busch pole award with a lap of 94.779 mph in his No. 41 SHR Ford at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
The 32-year old Connecticut driver Preece is the 14th driver to notch his first pole position at the .526-mile Virginia track. He’ll start alongside Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suárez on the front row for Sunday’s NOCO 400 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Suárez and Preece’s SHR teammate Aric Almirola turned the exact same lap time – down to a thousandth of a second (20.081), but Suárez got the front row start by virtue of team points.
“I was fighting loose that first lap,’’ Preece said with a smile, adding, “It’s a pole not a race.
“So I guess from a company standpoint it makes us all very optimistic for tomorrow, and can to just be smart and we can have good days. It certainly shows that our short track program is really good and I know our superspeedway program has been extremely good too and we’ll keep working on that.’’
Of note, Preece has won a pole in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series – and he won both those races (at Iowa in 2017 and at Nashville in 2022, respectively).
“Hopefully I can do a good job and keep those statistics going.”
Almirola will start on the second row alongside his Stewart-Haas teammate Chase Briscoe – all four SHR cars advanced to the final round of qualifying. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. and 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick will start on the third row, followed by SHR’s Kevin Harvick and defending race winner, Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron. 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace and Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Chris Buescher round out the top 10.
As with Stewart-Haas, the 23XI Racing team batted a thousand in qualifying – pushing both its cars into the final round.
The current NASCAR Cup Series championship leader Christopher Bell will roll off 22nd in the No. 20 JGR Toyota. His teammate, Ty Gibbs was the fastest rookie, qualifying 12th in the No. 54 JGR Toyota. In his first race back, Chase Elliott will start 24th.
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