Martin Truex Jr. wins pole at Phoenix, Championship 4 lineup set after qualifying

One more trick up his sleeve! Martin Truex Jr. finishes the year off with back-to-back pole awards. He will have a chance to spoil tomorrow’s race. The NASCAR veteran is in his final full-time race, and he will have a great view of the track on Sunday.

Of course, Martin Truex Jr. is hoping his pole this week ends better than it did a week ago at Martinsville. He had issues on pit road and never recovered.

Joey Logano will start P2 and lead the Championship 4 drivers. William Byron is starting P8. Then you have Tyler Reddick P10 with Ryan Blaney all the way back in P17. How will the race shake out tomorrow?

Will Martin Truex Jr. end his JGR career with a checkered flag?

HE CLAIMS THE POLE IN HIS FINAL RACE AS A FULL-TIME NASCAR DRIVER. Repost to congratulate Martin Truex Jr. as he gets it done in Phoenix qualifying! 😎🏁 pic.twitter.com/X1ChgZFhUl

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) November 9, 2024

Martin Truex Jr. has won once at Phoenix. This is the third time that he has won the pole. Is it possible that we will see Truex earn one final victory before he heads off into retirement? A little numerology for you – the last two times Truex won the Phoenix pole, he finished P5. When he won, he started P5.

The big story is about the NASCAR Playoff drivers. Joey Logano may have qualified P2, but he lost his ability to pick his pit stall by failing inspection twice. He also had a crew member ejected.

As for the other drivers, they have work to do. It is also surprising how far off Ryan Blaney is from his Team Penske teammate.

Martin Truex Jr. on pole, Joey Logano hit with penalty

Martin Truex Jr. will have nothing but windshield in front of him when the green flag drops. More importantly, so will Joey Logano. However, things did not go according to plan during inspection.

Joey Logano is going to lose pit stall selection, as well as, a crew member. That is typically the car chief who is ejected. Team Penske wants to be at 100% for both Logano and Ryan Blaney and already they are starting behind the ball.

Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports reported that Logano did pass a third time. If he had failed then he would have been made to go to the tail end of the field to start the race.

The one thing that is going to go to Logano’s benefit, the fact that he won two three weeks ago. His victory at Las Vegas feels like it was a long time ago. While it wasn’t that long ago, in terms of race prep, Logano and his crew have ha a lot more than the other Championship 4 drivers.