AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Just when Martin Truex Jr. was basically ready to admit to himself that it's all about next season, he won the pole for this Sunday's Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

It was a reminder that he still has two Sprint Cup races left in the No. 1 Chevrolet he currently drives for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. His tenure at EGR comes to an end with the conclusion of the 2009 season next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, as next season he's moving to a new ride with Michael Waltrip Racing.

"This is something new for me. I have never been in a position like this before in my career," said Truex, who will drive the No. 56 Toyota for MWR beginning next season.

Truex said he is cautiously optimistic about having his third pole of the season carry over to a great finish at Phoenix. But he's been on the pole before this season -- at the season-opening Daytona 500 and again in the second Atlanta race -- without necessarily having that happen. He finished 11th at Daytona, but the 26th-place finish he struggled to at Atlanta after leading 68 laps was more indicative of how his season has gone.

"Yeah, I'm hopeful. I'm optimistic. But that's how you can sum up our season," Truex said. "We've had decent speed and good cars, but we don't have good finishes to go with it.

"We've had a lot of weird things happen. We've had a lot of bad luck. But at the end of the day we just haven't gotten the job done on race day. It isn't for a lack of effort or a lack of speed. We just have made tons of mistakes and have had lots of things go wrong."

He used last Sunday's race at Texas as an example. Although he fought an ill-handling race car all day to manage a respectable 14th-place finish, the car was found to be too low in post-race inspection. That led to a penalty of 50 points both for Truex and car co-owner Teresa Earnhardt in drivers' and owners' points, respectively, as well as a $50,000 fine for crew chief Kevin Manion.

"Last weekend I felt good going into the race," Truex said. "Then the right-front jacking screw backed out during the race. It ended up not only making the car drive terrible the whole night and we couldn't ever get a handle on the car, but it led to another penalty this week because we were low at the end of the race."

The penalty dropped Truex from 24th to 26th in drivers' points. Two years ago, he made the Chase for the Sprint Cup and finished 11th; last year he was 15th. (Continued)