Junior on pole for Talladega

Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole for his final scheduled Monster Energy Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday.

Earnhardt is retiring from full-time competition at the end of the season, and the Alabama crowd always has embraced NASCAR’s most popular driver. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has declared race day “Dale Earnhardt Jr. Day” across the state.

The field will be led to green by Donnie Allison, a two-time Talladega winner and original member of the Alabama Gang, while driving the late Dale Earnhardt’s No. 2 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Talladega officials presented Earnhardt Jr. with the car, which his father raced during his 1979 rookie season, as well as some races during his 1980 championship season, as a retirement gift.

“This place has meant a lot to me,” Earnhardt said. “It’s awesome to hear those fans happy for us and hopefully we’re going to give them a lot more to cheer about before this weekend is over.”

Earnhardt is winless this season and didn’t make the playoffs. He has just six races left before he turns over his No. 88 Chevrolet to Hendrick Motorsports and replacement driver Alex Bowman.

On Saturday, Earnhardt turned a lap at 190.544 mph to knock teammate Chase Elliott from the top starting spot. Elliott wound up second with a lap at 190.412 mph in a Hendrick Motorsports sweep of the front row.

In other motor sports news:

• Parker Kligerman won the Camping World Truck race at Talladega Superspeedway, where the focus was on John Hunter Nemechek’s desperate push to advance in the playoffs. Nemechek entered Saturday’s elimination race last in the eightdriver field, but a hardearned sixth-place finish gave him the final spot in the playoffs.