Preece wins pole position at Martinsville
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Ryan Preece put his No. 41 Ford in pole position for Sunday’s NASCAR race at Martinsville Speedway, capping a strong session of Cup Series qualifying for Stewart-Haas Racing.
All four SHR cars qualified in the top seven on Saturday.
Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez and SHR’s Aric Almirola, were tied for the best qualifying lap before Preece took the half-mile track last among the top 10 drivers in the final round and zipped around the paperclip-shaped course in 94.78 mph, besting the showing of 94.298 shared by Suarez and Almirola.
Because Saurez’s team has the edge in car owner points over Almirola, he’ll start second in the No. 99 Chevrolet, ahead of Almirola in third.
Chase Briscoe, also of SHR, qualified fourth to join his teammate on the second row, followed by Martin Truex Jr. in a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing will start sixth in another Toyota, and SHR’s Kevin Harvick is seventh, with William Byron, Bubba Wallace and Chris Buescher rounding out the top 10.
Qualifying didn’t go all that well for fan favorite Chase Elliott, who is returning from a six-week absence after breaking his left leg while snowboarding in Colorado. He will start 24th after brushing the wall on his second lap of qualifying.
Preece has not started higher than eighth this season and has not finished better than 10th. He said he feels as if he and his SHR teammates have a strong chance to win Sunday.
“You guys see it, how important track position is nowadays, and whether you have control of the race or track position, you can’t give it up because it is so, so difficult to pass,” Preece said. “So from a company standpoint, it certainly makes us all very optimistic about Sunday. We can be smart and all have good days. And I think it shows that our short track program is really good.”
Added Briscoe: “A really good start to the weekend for the company as a whole to have all four cars in the top 10 is something that we haven’t been able to say in a really long time. We know the short tracks are where we need to capitalize, and I think this is a great way to start the weekend.”