He has been one of the best short-track racers over the last two years as he leads all drivers in laps led at Phoenix and Richmond with 904.
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“I feel pretty good,” Truex told Fox Sports 1 after qualifying. “I thought we had a good practice today, it’s hard to put too much stock into with it being a daytime practice, nighttime race, but we’ve got some good history to go off here the last couple of years, we’ve been really strong, (and) if we’re ever going to get that short-track win, I feel like this is the place to do it.”
Chase Elliott will start second and Joey Logano will be third.
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The story of qualifying, though, was Kyle Busch, who qualified 32nd.
Busch told FS1 he was trying to save his tires for the later rounds, but he miscalcuated his time and ran a slow lap as a result. If Busch were to somehow come back from that far down to win it would be the first time he has ever won a race starting outside the top 30.
It should be noted that seven of the eight winners this season started inside the top 12.
The Toyota Owners 400 kicks off at 6:30 p.m. ET Saturday night on Fox.
Toyota Owners 400 starting lineup
- Martin Truex Jr. 2. Chase Elliott 3. Joey Logano 4. Denny Hamlin 5. Kyle Larson 6. Kurt Busch 7. Erik Jones 8. Jamie McMurray 9. William Byron 10. Kevin Harvick 11. Alex Bowman 12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 13. Ryan Blaney 14. Ryan Newman 15. David Ragan 16. Clint Bowyer 17. Jimmie Johnson 18. Darrell Wallace Jr. 19. Chris Buescher 20. Paul Menard 21. Trevor Bayne 22. Daniel Hemric 23. Austin Dillon 24. Michael McDowell 25. Aric Almirola 26. Daniel Suarez 27. Matt DiBenedetto 28. Brad Keselowski 29. Kasey Kahne 30. Ross Chastain 31. Ty Dillon 32. Kyle Busch 33. AJ Allmendinger 34. Gray Gaulding 35. Cole Whitt 36. Landon Cassill 37. Reed Sorenson 38. Harrison Rhodes
