Martin Truex Jr. won the pole for the Quaker State 400 and put himself in a great position to win again at Kentucky Speedway.
Truex is the defending champion at the track and was in contention for a win in 2016 before incurring a penalty on pit road.
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With four of the last seven winners in Kentucky having started from the front row, Truex has to feel good about his chances in Saturday night's race (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN).
"Starting up front is key," Truex told NBCSN after running a 188.890 mph lap (25.588 seconds) on the 1.5-mile track in the third round of qualifying Friday, "so first pit stall will be good for here, and hopefully we can back up what we did last year."
Erik Jones followed up his win last weekend at the Coke Zero Sugar 400 with a second-place qualifying run behind Truex. Kevin Harvick will start third, Brad Keselowski fourth and Kyle Busch fifth.
Denny Hamlin, who is ninth in the Cup Series standings, will start at the rear of the field after his car failed tech inspection.
Material from the NASCAR Wire Service was used in this report.
Starting lineup for the Quaker State 400
Position, car number, driver, manufacturer, speed
1. (78) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 188.890 mph.
2. (20) Erik Jones, Toyota, 188.739 mph.
3. (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 188.547 mph.
4. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 188.390 mph.
5. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 188.206 mph.
6. (21) Paul Menard, Ford, 188.121 mph.
7. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 187.944 mph.
8. (14) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 187.696 mph.
9. (41) Kurt Busch, Ford, 187.630 mph.
10. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 187.071 mph.
11. (19) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 187.000 mph.
12. (10) Aric Almirola, Ford, 186.884 mph.
13. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 187.169 mph.
14. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 187.071 mph.
15. (88) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 186.625 mph.
16. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 186.548 mph.
17. (6) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 186.522 mph.
18. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 186.342 mph.
19. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 186.329 mph.
20. (37) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 186.181 mph.
21. (24) William Byron #, Chevrolet, 186.143 mph.
22. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 185.886 mph.
23. (34) Michael McDowell, Ford, 185.465 mph.
24. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 184.716 mph.
25. (43) Bubba Wallace #, Chevrolet, 184.533 mph.
26. (47) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 184.483 mph.
27. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 184.420 mph.
28. (13) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 182.846 mph.
29. (95) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 182.543 mph.
30. (15) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 181.178 mph.
31. (72) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 180.385 mph.
32. (23) JJ Yeley(i), Toyota, 179.868 mph.
33. (00) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 179.104 mph.
34. (51) BJ McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 177.883 mph.
35. (99) Garrett Smithley(i), Chevrolet, 176.188 mph.
36. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
Did not qualify
37. (32) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 0.000 mph.
38. (7) Jesse Little(i), Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
39. (66) Timmy Hill(i), Toyota, 0.000 mph.
# Rookie.
(i) Ineligible for Cup Series points.