Pocono starting lineup: Pole-sitter Martin Truex Jr. leads Sunday's Toyota parade

Ray Slover

Pocono starting lineup: Pole-sitter Martin Truex Jr. leads Sunday's Toyota parade image

Martin Truex Jr. threw another Toyota challenge at Sprint Cup competition on Friday, earning pole position for Sunday's Pennsylvania 400.

He wasn't along. Joe Gibbs Racing placed three cars in the top 10. Kyle Busch, winner last week at Indianapolis, will start 16th after a long delay getting through inspection.

MORE: Can anyone stop Gibbs cars? | Gordon open to longer fill-in | 10 to watch

Martin Truex Jr. (Getty Images)

To secure his third pole start of the year, Truex cracked off a lap of 179.244. His car, allied to Gibbs through Furniture Row racing, has been a constant in this, Truex's best season. In addition to his impressive and dominant victory at Charlotte, Truex has three top-five finishes and nine top 10s, plus other races he had one of the best cars on the track.

"I had good speed right off the trailer," Truex said. "We just need tweaking on it and getting better. We got the speed, now hopefully we’ll get to practice tomorrow to get it dialed in for Sunday."

Rain permitting, Sprint Cup's Sunday race begins about 1:30 p.m. ET. Kurt Busch won the 2016 spring race at Pocono, which was run a day late because of foul weather. Matt Kenseth, another Gibbs driver, is this race's defending champion.

It appears the five Gibbs allies could be in for another day of domination. Kyle Busch swept last weekend's competition, and all other Toyotas in the cabal have victories this season.

MORE: Junior health update | Truex luck sucks | Rain delay at Pocono

In addition to the Gibbs five, the day was great for Richard Childress Racing's three cars. After ripping off the day's fastest times in practice, Paul Menard wedged himself into third starting position. Teammate Ryan Newman will start fifth, with Austin Dillon 12th on the grid.

Menard's team runs this week with new crew chief Danny Stockman in place.

"The car has been good since we unloaded and Danny spent a lot of time in the shop this week," Menard told media members. "And he's never been on a Cup team before, so he's been working with the guys and trying to get everything sorted out with the car for this weekend. This is a new style car that RCR debuted last week at Indy, and everybody at RCR worked out a lot of bugs with it and I think we've got it tuned up right now."

Here is Sunday's starting lineup.

Pos. No. Driver Brand Sponsor
1 78 Martin
Truex Jr.
Toyota Furniture
Row
2 19 Carl
Edwards
Toyota Stanley
3 27 Paul
Menard
Chevy Moen/
Menards
4 11 Denny
Hamlin
Toyota FedEx
Ground
5 31 Ryan
Newman
Chevy Caterpillar
6 14 Tony
Stewart
Chevy Mobil 1
Chevrolet SS
7 2 Brad
Keselowski
Ford Alliance
Truck Parts
8 24 Chase
Elliott
Chevy NAPA
Auto Parts
9 20 Matt
Kenseth
Toyota Dollar
General
10 22 Joey
Logano
Ford Shell
Pennzoil
11 42 Kyle
Larson
Chevy Target
12 3 Austin
Dillon
Chevy American
Ethanol
13 47 AJ
Allmendinger
Chevy Scott
Products
14 17 Ricky
Stenhouse Jr.
Ford Roush Performance
Ford Fusion
15 41 Kurt
Busch
Chevy Monster Energy/
Haas Automation
Chevrolet SS
16 18 Kyle
Busch
Toyota M&M's 75th
Anniversary
17 4 Kevin
Harvick
Chevy Mobil 1
Chevrolet SS
18 21 Ryan
Blaney
Ford Motorcraft/
Quick Lane
Tire + Auto Center
19 1 Jamie
McMurray
Chevy Cessna/
McDonald’s Chevrolet
20 13 Casey
Mears
Toyota Geico
21 48 Jimmie
Johnson
Chevy Lowe's
22 34 Chris
Buescher
Ford Dockside
Logistics
23 5 Kasey
Kahne
Chevy Great
Clips
24 88 Jeff
Gordon
Chevy Nationwide
25 16 Greg
Biffle
Ford Ford EcoBoost
Ford Fusion
26 10 Danica
Patrick
Chevy Mobil 1
Chevrolet SS
27 43 Aric
Almirola
Ford Smithfield
28 15 Clint
Bowyer
Chevy 5-Hour
Energy
29 95 Michael
McDowell
Chevy Malwarebytes
30 7 Regan
Smith
Chevy APC
Chevrolet
31 6 Trevor
Bayne
Ford Advocare
Ford Fusion
32 38 Landon
Cassill
Ford MDS
Transport
33 23 David
Ragan
Toyota USA
Network
34 83 Matt
DiBenedetto
Toyota E.J. Wade
Construction
35 44 Brian
Scott
Ford Medallion
Financial
36 98 Cole
Whitt
Chevy TBD
37 32 Jeb
Burton
Ford Erie
Insurance
38 30 Josh
Wise
Chevy Curtis Key
Plumbing
39 46 Michael
Annett
Chevy Allstate
Peterbilt Group
40 55 Reed
Sorenson
Chevy VYDOX
Plus

Once again this week, Jeff Gordon is driving in place of Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Ray Slover