Martin Truex Jr. Takes 1st Cup Pole of 2024 at Martinsville

Martin Truex Jr. will retire at the end of 2024, and he will go out with a pole to his name in his final full-time season.

Truex Jr. upended playoff driver Chase Elliott for his first pole of the 2024 season after clocking in at 96.190 mph in his first of two allocated laps in Saturday’s (Nov. 2) two-round qualifying at Martinsville Speedway. The Mayetta, N.J., native earned his 24th pole in the Cup Series, his first since the same Xfinity 500 last season at Martinsville.

Elliott was the fastest of his four Hendrick Motorsports teammates, all of which qualified inside the top 10. Elliott, the fastest of the Group A qualifiers, finished the session with a 95.84 mph lap.

Winner of the spring Martinsville race William Byron finished third but closest on time to Truex Jr. at 95.951 mph. Chase Briscoe, who will inherit Truex’s No. 19 Toyota next year, and Ty Gibbs completed the top five.

Harrison Burton, Alex Bowman, Ryan Preece, Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon rounded out the top 10.

Last year’s winner at fall Martinsville and defending Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney will start 14th, and 2022 fall Martinsville winner Christopher Bell will roll off 16th.

Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick will start 12th and 31st respectively. Both drivers have locked themselves into the Championship 4 by way of Logano’s win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Reddick’s win at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

JGR playoff driver Denny Hamlin crashed in practice after a chunk of rubber stuck his throttle open, heavily damaging the back of his No. 11 Toyota. The team made the attempt to repair the car to send it back through inspection to asses underbody damage. He did not make a qualifying time and will start at the rear but race the damaged car.

Only 37 Cup teams entered for the Xfinity 500. Therefore, all will race on Sunday.

The green flag for the penultimate race of the Cup Series season will wave tomorrow, Nov. 2 at 2 p.m. ET with broadcasting provided by NBC.