Truex powers to pole for his own Cup Series finale at Phoenix

Martin Truex Jr. will end his full-time NASCAR Cup Series career leading the field to the green flag for the second consecutive week.

Truex won the pole for the season finale at Phoenix Raceway with a lap of 134.741mph (26.718s). It is the 25th pole of Truex’s career, third at Phoenix, and second of the season. The second pole comes a week after the first when the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was also the quickest at Martinsville.

“It’s very cool,” Truex said of the back-to-back poles. “Honestly, you always want to be known as a guy who can go fast at any track and any situation. The pressure is always pretty high for qualifying; you have to go out there and nail [it perfectly] and you only get one shot at it these days. It’s always fun to go there and beat everyone at anything, so it feels good. It’s very cool. But the big prize is tomorrow, so hopefully we can get that one.”

Joey Logano was the fastest of the four championship contenders, qualifying second at 134.690mph.

Ross Chastain qualified third at 134.268mph and is the defending race winner at Phoenix.

Kyle Larson ran fourth at 134.308mph; Chase Elliott, fifth at 134.228mph; Ty Gibbs, sixth at 134.273mph and Christopher Bell, seventh at 133.373mph.

William Byron was the second-highest championship contender in eighth place. His lap was 134.218mph.

Harrison Burton qualified ninth at 132.188mph and Tyler Reddick ended up the third championship contender to qualify inside the top 10. He starts 10th after a lap of 134.118mph.

The Cup Series’ Rookie of the Year Carson Hocevar qualified 15th.

Ryan Blaney, defending series champion, qualified 17th with a lap of 134.263mph.

Jimmie Johnson qualified 23rd; Kyle Busch, 25th; Brad Keselowski, 27th and Bubba Wallace, 29th.

Josh Berry qualified 39th after spinning on his qualifying lap off Turn 2.

There are 40 drivers who will start Sunday’s race.

NEXT: Cup Series season finale at 3 p.m. ET Sunday.