Truex has a fighting chance with pole position
For the third time in this year’s NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, regular-season champion Martin Truex Jr. is facing elimination and wondering how his title chances have exploded spectacularly.
Truex heads into Sunday at Martinsville Speedway — the Virginia short track is hosting the penultimate race of the year — tied with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin at 17 points below the cutoff line for the four playoff drivers who will be eligible for the title Nov. 5 at Phoenix Raceway. Among the eight drivers still in the playoffs, Hendrick’s Kyle Larson and JGR’s Christopher Bell have already qualified with wins in the first two races of this round, leaving just two spots available, and Truex needs a rapid turnaround to have any shot at racing for a second title to with the 2017 crown he won with Furniture Row Racing.
He got a boost in qualifying Saturday at Martinsville, turning a lap at 94.153 mph that was good enough for his third pole position of the season and second consecutive. And, wow, did Truex need it.
He has just one top-10 finish through the first seven races of the playoffs, which forced him to stave off elimination at the end of the rounds of 16 and 12 — and although he started from the pole last Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, engine failure there put him in the same precarious position going into this weekend.
“It’s been really tough, and nothing has really gone right,” Truex said Saturday. “I thought we were sitting in a really good position last week. Things were going pretty well, and then we pit and the bottom falls out. We will reset. We are ready to go again. This is a new week and a new opportunity, and we’ve been in this position before. Let’s just go see what we can do.”
Bell, who won last weekend, and 2021 champion Larson, who won in Las Vegas, don’t have to sweat Sunday’s outcome. Hendrick’s William Byron has a solid shot at adding another Chevrolet to the championship field based on his sizeable points margin, which means barring a Byron disaster, there’s really only one spot up for grabs.
Among Truex’s challengers are teammate Hamlin, who leads all active drivers at Martinsville with five career wins, and Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, who is above the cutline and trying to ensure a Ford is represented in the finale.
Also below the cutline are Tyler Reddick, who drives for 23XI Racing, and RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher, who must win at Martinsville to make the final four.
Hamlin, meanwhile, is trying to balance his own desire to make the championship field with his hopes that Reddick can earn a spot for 23XI, the team Hamlin co-owns with basketball legend Michael Jordan.
Truex was joined on the front row by JGR teammate Ty Gibbs, with Chase Briscoe starting third in a Stewart-Haas Racing Ford and Hamlin fourth in the lineup. Larson is fifth in the best starting spot for a Chevy driver, with 23XI’s Bubba Wallace joining him on the third row in a Toyota and Bell qualifying seventh.
As for the starting spots for the remainder of the playoff drivers, Blaney is 11th, Byron 16th, Buescher 18th and Reddick 19th.