Truex streaks to his first pole of 2012 at Texas

Martin Truex

In blustery conditions at Texas Motor Speedway, Martin Truex Jr. topped the speed chart in Friday's Sprint Cup qualifying session, winning the pole for Saturday's Samsung Mobile 500 at the 1.5-mile track.

The Coors Light pole award was Truex's first of the season, his second at Texas and the seventh of his career. The driver of the No. 56 Toyota posted a lap at 190.369 mph (28.366 seconds) to edge defending race winner Matt Kenseth (190.148 mph) for the top starting spot.

Kenseth was 0.004 seconds faster than third-place qualifier Greg Biffle, his teammate at Roush Fenway Racing and the series leader by six points over Dale Earnhardt Jr., who placed 16th in the time trials. Mark Martin (190.020 mph), Truex's teammate at Michael Waltrip Racing, qualified fourth, followed by Kasey Kahne (189.633 mph).

With the pole secure, Truex will try to win his first race since June 2007, when he claimed his only Cup victory at Dover.

"That's our main goal," said Truex, who is tied for third in the Cup standings with Kenseth, Kevin Harvick and defending series champion Tony Stewart. "This team's good enough. We can get to Victory Lane. We're going to do it soon. I feel good about this team. I'm just having so much fun coming to the race track and driving these cars.

"We're going to make them proud here pretty quick."

Stewart qualified 29th in a backup car after scraping the outside wall during the second lap of Friday's 90-minute practice session. The accident may have been a blessing in disguise for the Stewart, who found the backup No. 14 Chevrolet more responsive to adjustments than his primary car.

"I just got loose and didn't have enough race track to get it gathered up," Stewart said of the brush with the wall. "We haven't got a lot of laps on this one [the backup car], but I think we feel better with this one so far.

"It's doing everything that we were trying to get the other one to do … The top-tier teams, their backup cars are just as good as their primary cars, so definitely no concerns."

Lineup

POS

CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR SPEED TIME BEHIND
1 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota NAPA Auto Parts 190.369 28.366 Leader
2 17 Matt Kenseth Ford Best Buy 190.148 28.399 -0.033
3 16 Greg Biffle Ford 3M Filtrete 190.121 28.403 -0.037
4 55 Mark Martin Toyota Aaron's 2011 Best of the Best 190.020 28.418 -0.052
5 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet Farmers Insurance 189.633 28.476 -0.110
6 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet U.S. Army 189.494 28.497 -0.131
7 9 Marcos Ambrose Ford Stanley 189.467 28.501 -0.135
8 2 Brad Keselowski Dodge Miller Lite 189.381 28.514 -0.148
9 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Boats 189.294 28.527 -0.161
10 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe's / Kobalt Tools 189.281 28.529 -0.163
11 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet Quaker State / Menards 189.082 28.559 -0.193
12 22 AJ Allmendinger Dodge Shell / Pennzoil 189.023 28.568 -0.202
13 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Office / March of Dimes 188.884 28.589 -0.223
14 20 Joey Logano Toyota Dollar General 188.805 28.601 -0.235
15 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Budweiser 188.653 28.624 -0.258
16 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet Diet Mountain Dew / National Guard 188.442 28.656 -0.290
17 18 Kyle Busch Toyota Interstate Batteries 188.298 28.678 -0.312
18 15 Clint Bowyer Toyota 5-hour Energy 188.291 28.679 -0.313
19 21 Trevor Bayne Ford Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center 188.186 28.695 -0.329
20 99 Carl Edwards Ford Fastenal 187.957 28.730 -0.364
21 34 David Ragan Ford Scorpion Truck Bed Liners 187.872 28.743 -0.377
22 13 Casey Mears Ford GEICO 187.813 28.752 -0.386
23 43 Aric Almirola Ford Smithfield 187.748 28.762 -0.396
24 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet Caterpillar 187.676 28.773 -0.407
25 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet Target 187.539 28.794 -0.428
26 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet Furniture Row / Farm American 187.292 28.832 -0.466
27 51 Kurt Busch Chevrolet Phoenix Construction Services 187.182 28.849 -0.483
28 83 Landon Cassill Toyota Burger King / Dr Pepper 187.110 28.860 -0.494
29 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet Mobil 1 Advanced Fuel Economy / Office Depot 186.994 28.878 -0.512
30 47 Bobby Labonte Toyota Bush's Baked Beans 186.981 28.880 -0.514
31 10 David Reutimann Chevrolet Accell Construction 186.664 28.929 -0.563
32 26 Josh Wise* Ford Morristown Driver's Service 186.361 28.976 -0.610
33 98 Michael McDowell Ford Curb Records 185.925 29.044 -0.678
34 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 20 Years 185.605 29.094 -0.728
35 38 David Gilliland Ford ModSpace 185.605 29.094 -0.728
36 249 J.J. Yeley Toyota JPO Absorbents 185.542 29.104 -0.738
37 93 Travis Kvapil Toyota Dr Pepper 185.191 29.159 -0.793
38 195 Scott Speed Ford Tommy Williams Drywall 185.122 29.170 -0.804
39 32 Reed Sorenson Ford Jani-King 184.824 29.217 -0.851
40 23 Scott Riggs Chevrolet North Texas Pipe / Embassy Suites 184.748 29.229 -0.863
41 36 Dave Blaney+ Chevrolet Jimmie Johnson's Anything With an Engine 183.275 29.464 -1.098
42 33 Tony Raines+ Chevrolet Precon Marine 181.824 29.699 -1.333
43 119 Mike Bliss Toyota Humphrey Smith Racing 184.729 29.232 -0.866
Did Not Qualify
44 30 David Stremme Toyota Inception Motorsports 184.716 29.234 -0.868
45 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota AMFMEnergy.com / Pellet & Wood Stoves 184.376 29.288 -0.922
46 74 Stacy Compton Chevrolet Turn One Racing 181.038 29.828 -1.462