Truex claims pole at Richmond Raceway

Richmond, Va. — Martin Truex Jr. won the pole Friday for the NASCAR Cup Series race tonight at Richmond Raceway, edging Chase Elliott.

The pole is the series-best third of the season for Truex, the 18th of his career and his first at the 0.75-mile oval.

It's also a nice turnaround after finishing 37th and 30th in the past two races. Before that, he'd had five straight top-five finishes.

"Definitely a good way to start the weekend," said Truex, who is seeking his first career short-track victory. "I'd say out of all the short tracks, this is probably the one we've probably been consistently the best at and definitely had the most chances to win here. I feel like we've run really strong the last few times and led a bunch of laps.

"Definitely feel like we should have won here already," he said.

Truex's winning lap came at 123.859 mph.

Elliott, coming off a 29th-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway, is 23rd in the points standings and still seeking his first career victory.

"I thought it was much improved from where we have been," the Hendrick Motorsports driver said. "You've got to take the small victories every now and then in life and especially in the racing world. We are just trying to take those right now. A much better Friday than we have been having."

Defending race winner Joey Logano will start third, followed by Denny Hamlin.

Both front-row starters hope their success carries over.

"I think it gives you confidence in that the things you are thinking about and planning for are going in the right direction," Truex said

Hometown favorite Denny Hamlin sounded anything but hopeful after a few rounds of practice, saying "we have some issues, for sure" and "it's super frustrating from my standpoint and it is for (the team), too."

His Joe Gibbs Racing team obviously figured some things out. He was fastest in the second round and will start fourth in Saturday night's race.

"I struggled to make a few corners in practice and we changed a lot of things in the car," Hamlin said. "I mean so many things that really don't change here at this race track. We try to get better and I felt like we did get a little better, but still we fell off quite a bit."

• Christopher Bell grabbed the lead out of a restart to begin the final stage and held off teammate Noah Gragson to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Richmond Raceway on Friday night.

Bell led by nearly 0.6 seconds at one point during the final stage, then had Gragson close onto his rear bumper with about 10 laps to go. But just as quickly as Gragson mounted a challenge in his first career start in the series, Bell again pulled away for his second career victory in the series.

Points leader and Virginia native Elliott Sadler finished third and won a $100,000 bonus as the top finisher in the Dash for Cash.

“To not win the race is bad, but to win the $100,000 is great,” said Sadler, now winless in 30 career series starts on the 0.75-mile oval.

Daniel Hemric, another of the Dash for Cash contenders, had a strong early run and won the first stage, but chanced staying on the track with a failing tire late in the second stage. He eventually hit the wall and fell way off the pace, finishing 29th.