{"id":15251,"date":"2018-03-09T18:25:19","date_gmt":"2018-03-10T00:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=15251"},"modified":"2018-03-11T11:50:04","modified_gmt":"2018-03-11T16:50:04","slug":"strong-final-round-puts-martin-truex-jr-on-ism-raceway-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/09\/strong-final-round-puts-martin-truex-jr-on-ism-raceway-pole\/","title":{"rendered":"Strong final round puts Martin Truex Jr. on ISM Raceway pole"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

AVONDALE, Ariz. \u2013 Defending Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> champion Martin Truex Jr.<\/strong> finally found the extra speed he needed at ISM Raceway.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #78 5-hour ESnergy\/Bass Pro Shops Toyota,Sits in his car during qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway on March 9, 2018 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Saving his best lap for the final round of knockout qualifying on Friday at the one-mile track in the Sonoran Desert, Truex sped around the circuit in 26.288 seconds (136.945 mph) to win the pole position for Sunday\u2019s TicketGuardian 500 (3:30 ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

Truex beat Kyle Larson (136.643 mph) by .058 seconds to earn his first pole of the season, his second at ISM Raceway and the 16th of his career. But Truex hadn\u2019t claimed the top starting spot at ISM since he led the field to the green flag in the fall of 2009. Truex said a strong game plan and a variety of factors contributed to the pole-winning run for the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was a little bit of everything,\u201d Truex said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I held back that much the first two runs. But we really worked on our car in practice to try to be best in that third run and to understand what we needed to do for balance-wise throughout those three runs. Honestly, sometimes you just hit it right, and today all the stars lined up, and here we are.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many little things come in to play when you\u2019re talking about how to pick up half of a tenth at the racetrack. Just a lot of little things and details that were done properly, and that\u2019s what\u2019s so fun about our team. We work together so well. They can tell me I\u2019m not driving right, and I can tell them they\u2019re not setting up the car right, and we can meet in the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chase Elliott (136.126 mph) qualified third, followed by Alex Bowman (136.080 mph) and Joey Logano (135.947 mph).<\/p>\n

Time trials took place two hours earlier than their traditional later afternoon time slot, and Larson thought he had a strong shot at his first Phoenix pole.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Credit One Bank Chevy has been really good here the last few years and actually, I\u2019m a little disappointed in second, because I always qualify good here,\u201d Larson said. \u201cI think I\u2019ve been like in the top eight every single time I\u2019ve qualified at Phoenix (except for a 12th-place start in 2015) and still don\u2019t have a pole yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought today was going to be the day. I thought my first lap was okay, but Martin, obviously, their team hit it there for that final round. Sunday\u2019s race will be fun. Like I said, we\u2019ve been fast here the last few years, so it would be nice to close out the weekend with a win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Jamie McMurray, Erik Jones and Kevin Harvick completed spots six through 10 on the grid. Harvick is a record eight-time winner at ISM and is on a two-race winning streak this season entering Sunday\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

Media Center Interviews: <\/h3>\n

Martin Truex Jr. – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MENCS_ISM_TruexJr_030918.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kyle Larson – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MENCS_ISM_Larson_039018.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying – TicketGuardian 500<\/b><\/p>\n

ISM Raceway<\/b><\/p>\n

Avondale, Arizona<\/b><\/p>\n

Friday, March 9, 2018<\/b><\/p>\n

               1. (78)  Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 136.945 mph.<\/p>\n

               2. (42)  Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 136.643 mph.<\/p>\n

               3. (9)  Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 136.126 mph.<\/p>\n

               4. (88)  Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 136.080 mph.<\/p>\n

               5. (22)  Joey Logano, Ford, 135.947 mph.<\/p>\n

               6. (11)  Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 135.900 mph.<\/p>\n

               7. (18)  Kyle Busch, Toyota, 135.870 mph.<\/p>\n

               8. (1)  Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 135.864 mph.<\/p>\n

               9. (20)  Erik Jones, Toyota, 135.829 mph.<\/p>\n

               10. (4)  Kevin Harvick, Ford, 135.522 mph.<\/p>\n

               11. (24)  William Byron #, Chevrolet, 134.791 mph.<\/p>\n

               12. (12)  Ryan Blaney, Ford, 134.776 mph.<\/p>\n

               13. (31)  Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 135.262 mph.<\/p>\n

               14. (21)  Paul Menard, Ford, 135.181 mph.<\/p>\n

               15. (19)  Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 135.074 mph.<\/p>\n

               16. (38)  David Ragan, Ford, 135.014 mph.<\/p>\n

               17. (48)  Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 135.008 mph.<\/p>\n

               18. (3)  Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 134.998 mph.<\/p>\n

               19. (14)  Clint Bowyer, Ford, 134.700 mph.<\/p>\n

               20. (47)  AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 134.283 mph.<\/p>\n

               21. (6)  Trevor Bayne, Ford, 134.238 mph.<\/p>\n

               22. (10)  Aric Almirola, Ford, 134.078 mph.<\/p>\n

               23. (41)  Kurt Busch, Ford, 133.764 mph.<\/p>\n

               24. (37)  Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 133.566 mph.<\/p>\n

               25. (2)  Brad Keselowski, Ford, 133.274 mph.<\/p>\n

               26. (95)  Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 133.215 mph.<\/p>\n

               27. (43)  Darrell Wallace Jr. #, Chevrolet, 133.052 mph.<\/p>\n

               28. (13)  Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 133.013 mph.<\/p>\n

               29. (17)  Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 132.920 mph.<\/p>\n

               30. (32)  Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 132.597 mph.<\/p>\n

               31. (34)  Michael McDowell, Ford, 131.844 mph.<\/p>\n

               32. (23)  Gray Gaulding, Toyota, 130.709 mph.<\/p>\n

               33. (72)  Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 130.378 mph.<\/p>\n

               34. (96)  DJ Kennington, Toyota, 129.697 mph.<\/p>\n

               35. (51)  Timmy Hill(i), Chevrolet, 128.889 mph.<\/p>\n

               36. (15)  Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 128.553 mph.<\/p>\n

               37. (00)  Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.<\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. \u2013 Defending Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. finally found the extra speed he needed at ISM Raceway. Saving his best lap for the final round of knockout qualifying on Friday at the one-mile track in the Sonoran Desert, Truex sped around the circuit in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[244,16,395],"class_list":["post-15251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-martin-truex-jr","tag-nascar","tag-phoenix-raceway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/mencs_ism_truexjr2_030918.jpg?fit=4275%2C2850&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-3XZ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15251"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15259,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15251\/revisions\/15259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}