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Motorsport
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Jim Utter

Martin Truex Jr. beats Bubba Wallace for Darlington Cup pole

Truex, whose No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, had not shown to be particularly fast in Saturday’s practice session, rocketed to the top of the final round of qualifying with an average lap speed of 169.409 mph.

Brad Keselowski, who had posted the fastest lap of the day in the first round, was the final car to make a qualifying attempt. However, he only ended up 10th fastest among the 10 cars in the final round.

The pole is the first of the 2023 season for Truex, first at Darlington and 21st of his career.

“Honestly, the guys made a really good adjustment. I felt like we left a little on the table in Round 1,” Truex said. “They made the adjustment to help me off (Turn) 4 and it worked. I was not really sure what kind of lap time we were going to need to run or how the tires would affect it, but we nailed the balance really good.

“I was definitely really happy with that. The guys have been working really hard. Qualifying has never really been our greatest thing. Especially with this (Next Gen) car last year, we struggled a lot in qualifying. We’ve been working hard on it.

“This (car) is really fast so we’ll have some fun tomorrow.”

Bubba Wallace ended up second-fastest (169.339 mph) as Toyotas locked in the front row.

They were followed by three Chevrolets – Ricky Stenhouse Jr., William Byron and Ross Chastain – in the top five.

Completing the top-10 lineup are Daniel Suarez, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick and Keselowski.

Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph
1 19 United States Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 1 29.028     169.409
2 23 United States Bubba Wallace Toyota 1 29.040 0.012 0.012 169.339
3 47 United States Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Chevrolet 1 29.141 0.113 0.101 168.752
4 24 United States William Byron Chevrolet 1 29.212 0.184 0.071 168.342
5 1 United States Ross Chastain Chevrolet 1 29.255 0.227 0.043 168.094
6 99 Mexico Daniel Suarez Chevrolet 1 29.300 0.272 0.045 167.836
7 5 United States Kyle Larson Chevrolet 1 29.348 0.320 0.048 167.562
8 11 United States Denny Hamlin Toyota 1 29.365 0.337 0.017 167.465
9 45 United States Tyler Reddick Toyota 1 29.392 0.364 0.027 167.311
10 6 United States Brad Keselowski Ford 1 29.572 0.544 0.180 166.292

Round 1 / Group A

Wallace ended up with the fastest average speed in Group A (169.083 mph).

Chastain was second-fastest (168.920 mph) and Reddick was third (168.717 mph).

Also advancing to the final round were Stenhouse and Byron.

Among those who failed to advance were Chase Elliott – who was fastest in Saturday’s practice sessions, Austin Dillon and Michael McDowell.

Corey LaJoie tagged the wall on his qualifying run but did not appear to do serious damage to his No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.

Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph
1 23 United States Bubba Wallace Toyota 1 29.084     169.083
2 1 United States Ross Chastain Chevrolet 1 29.112 0.028 0.028 168.920
3 45 United States Tyler Reddick Toyota 1 29.147 0.063 0.035 168.717
4 47 United States Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Chevrolet 1 29.183 0.099 0.036 168.509
5 24 United States William Byron Chevrolet 1 29.246 0.162 0.063 168.146
6 3 United States Austin Dillon Chevrolet 1 29.291 0.207 0.045 167.888
7 34 United States Michael McDowell Ford 1 29.324 0.240 0.033 167.699
8 9 United States Chase Elliott Chevrolet 1 29.354 0.270 0.030 167.527
9 2 United States Austin Cindric Ford 1 29.428 0.344 0.074 167.106
10 17 United States Chris Buescher Ford 1 29.456 0.372 0.028 166.947
11 43 United States Erik Jones Chevrolet 1 29.463 0.379 0.007 166.908
12 16 United States A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 1 29.501 0.417 0.038 166.693
13 14 United States Chase Briscoe Ford 1 29.684 0.600 0.183 165.665
14 41 United States Ryan Preece Ford 1 29.762 0.678 0.078 165.231
15 77 United States Ty Dillon Chevrolet 1 29.961 0.877 0.199 164.133
16 7 United States Corey Lajoie Chevrolet 1 30.066 0.982 0.105 163.560
17 78 United States B.J. McLeod Chevrolet 1 30.577 1.493 0.511 160.827
18 15 United States Brennan Poole Ford 1 30.684 1.600 0.107 160.266

Round 1 / Group B

Keselowski set a blistering pace in Group B with an average lap speed of 170.324 mph – the fastest lap of the day at the time.

Truex was second-fastest (169.918 mph) and Suarez was third (169.889 mph).

Also advancing to the final round were Hamlin and Larson.

Among those who failed to advance were Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, Ryan Blaney and Kevin Harvick.

Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph
1 6 United States Brad Keselowski Ford 1 28.872     170.324
2 19 United States Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 1 28.941 0.069 0.069 169.918
3 99 Mexico Daniel Suarez Chevrolet 1 28.946 0.074 0.005 169.889
4 11 United States Denny Hamlin Toyota 1 29.012 0.140 0.066 169.502
5 5 United States Kyle Larson Chevrolet 1 29.052 0.180 0.040 169.269
6 12 United States Ryan Blaney Ford 1 29.059 0.187 0.007 169.228
7 8 United States Kyle Busch Chevrolet 1 29.107 0.235 0.048 168.949
8 54 Ty Gibbs Toyota 1 29.114 0.242 0.007 168.908
9 21 United States Harrison Burton Ford 1 29.117 0.245 0.003 168.891
10 22 United States Joey Logano Ford 1 29.139 0.267 0.022 168.764
11 20 United States Christopher Bell Toyota 1 29.238 0.366 0.099 168.192
12 10 United States Aric Almirola Ford 1 29.271 0.399 0.033 168.002
13 4 United States Kevin Harvick Ford 1 29.348 0.476 0.077 167.562
14 31 United States Justin Haley Chevrolet 1 29.386 0.514 0.038 167.345
15 48 Josh Berry Chevrolet 1 29.399 0.527 0.013 167.271
16 38 United States Todd Gilliland Ford 1 29.413 0.541 0.014 167.191
17 51 United States Ryan Newman Ford 1 29.440 0.568 0.027 167.038
18 42 United States Noah Gragson Chevrolet 1 29.477 0.605 0.037 166.828
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