RELATED: See the 40-car field
RELATED: Qualifying results | See every car in the field
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Just 13 points to the good entering Sunday’s Round of 12 cutoff race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Martin Truex Jr. gave himself as much of a cushion as possible, winning the pole for the Hellman’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway during Saturday’s knockout qualifying session.
Seventh in the Chase standings, and 13 points ahead of Joey Logano and Austin Dillon, Truex covered the 2.66-mile distance in 49.508 seconds (193.423 mph) to claim the Coors Light Pole Award for Sunday’s race (2 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) that will trim the Chase field from 12 drivers to eight.
“It’s definitely cool,” said Truex, who has never won a restrictor-plate race in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. “You come here, and you don’t really have a whole lot to say as a driver when it comes to qualifying, so obviously proud of the team and proud of everybody in Denver (Colorado) and proud of everybody at the race track for their efforts.
“Built a brand new car to come here, and it’s awesome to be the fastest guy in town. Excited about that, and obviously everybody at TRD (Toyota Racing Development) who builds the engines has done a great job too – it takes a lot to get a restrictor plate pole, so excited for all those guys and really neat to lead Toyota to their 1,000th start (in NASCAR’s top three series combined). Hopefully, we’ll be able to get the victory when the day is over.”
Truex didn’t allow a pre-qualifying inspection issue to derail his effort. Before his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota rolled out onto the grid, NASCAR confiscated a non-conforming jack screw from the car and required the team to replace it with a legal part.
RELATED: NASCAR confiscates part from 78 team
The pole was Truex’s first at Talladega, his fourth of the season and the 11th of his career. Truex was .015 seconds faster than four-time Talladega winner Brad Keselowski (193.365 mph), who will start on the outside of the front row.
Keselowski is 11th in the standings, seven points behind Logano and Dillon.
“It’s good to qualify up front,” Keselowski said. “I think it’s a good confidence boost. I feel like when we have cars that qualify well here, we race well. The Miller Lite Ford was really fast here in qualifying, and hopefully it will stay the same for Sunday.
“It’s been a good track for us, but past success is no guarantee. You have to go out and put the work in, and I think we’re ready to do just that.”
Chase drivers Matt Kenseth (193.189 mph) and Chase Elliott (193.166 mph) will start third and fourth, respectively. Elliott is 12th in the Chase standings, likely needing a victory in Sunday’s race to advance to the Round of 8.
“As we all know, qualifying here is all about the guys back in the shop preparing these cars,” Elliott said. “The Hendrick Engine shop gave me great speed, and the guys gave me an excellent car for tomorrow.
“Qualifying here at Talladega isn’t a make-or-break-you deal. I think it’s good. I think our car has decent speed, and hopefully that will show up on Sunday.”
Roush Fenway racing drivers Greg Biffle and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., both non-Chasers, will start from the third row after qualifying fifth and sixth, respectively.
Other Chase drivers qualified as follows: Kurt Busch (seventh), Denny Hamlin (eighth), Dillon (ninth), Carl Edwards (13th), Kyle Busch (14th), Joey Logano (16th), Jimmie Johnson (17th) and Kevin Harvick (22nd). Johnson and Harvick already have earned spots in the Round of 8 by virtue of their respective victories at Charlotte and Kansas, leaving six berths available to the remaining 10 drivers.
Reed Sorenson, who was required to make the field on the basis of qualifying time, posted an eyebrow-raising lap of 194.145 mph to lead the first round, a sizable .326 seconds faster than the next-fastest driver, Truex. Sorenson’s Premium Motorsports No. 55 Toyota faded considerably in the final round and will start 12th. David Gilliland failed to qualify for the 40-car field.
NASCAR will meet and discuss the non-conforming jack screw on Truex’s car during its weekly competition meeting, but Scott Miller, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, characterized the imposition of a points penalty that would affect the Chase standings as “unlikely.”
“I would say it would be unlikely, but it has to go through our process,” Miller said. “We don’t typically do that on a weekend, and because this is the playoffs, everybody has a heightened sense of everything.
“But this is really no different than things that we’ve done all year. We’ll treat this one like just like we’ve done all year long.”
Three Joe Gibbs Racing cars — those of Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Kenseth — were pulled from the qualifying line just before their speed attempts. NASCAR officials said that they were investigating a potential issue with the rear deck lid and quarter panel area. With those issues remedied behind the wall, all three were allowed to qualify.
RELATED: JGR cars brought back through pre-qualifying inspection
Contributing: Staff reports
RELATED: Race results | Updated Truck Series Chase Grid
TALLADEGA, Ala. – In the race that decided the lineup for the Round of 6 in the inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chase, Alabama native Grant Enfinger stole the thunder from the playoff drivers in Saturday’s fred’s 250 Powered by Coca-Cola at Talladega Superspeedway.
With a strong push from GMS Racing teammate and Chase driver Ben Kennedy after a restart on Lap 93 of 94, Enfinger surged to the front and stayed there in the face of a last-lap challenger from another teammate, Spencer Gallagher, who came home second, .108 seconds behind the winner.
The victory was Enfinger’s first in 13 career starts in the series.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Enfinger, who led the first-ever 1-2 finish for GMS. “It’s my home track. It’s just so special.”
RELATED: ‘Big One’ shakes up Trucks Chase
The race reduced the NCWTS Chase field from eight drivers to six. Third-place finisher Timothy Peters was the highest finisher among those who advanced, followed by Kennedy in fifth place, as GMS drivers claimed four of the top seven positions.
“I got behind Grant Enfinger and tried to push him as much as I could,” said Kennedy, who shoved his teammate’s No. 24 Chevrolet to the front in the outside lane. “I knew the outside line had a little bit of something. I pushed him as much as I could, and once he got out to the lead, that truck was so fast out there.
“I thought about trying to make it three-wide, but I didn’t really have the momentum to carry it around him.”
Also moving on to the Round of 6 were sixth-place finisher Christopher Bell, GMS driver Johnny Sauter (seventh on Saturday), 10th-place finisher William Byron (who already had clinched a spot with a victory in the opening Chase race at New Hampshire) and Matt Crafton (who came home 22nd after his blown engine caused the seventh and final caution on Lap 89).
WATCH: Nemechek out after his engine expires
John Hunter Nemechek was eliminated from the Chase early in the race. The engine in his No. 8 Chevrolet expired on Lap 13, and Nemechek retired in 32nd place. Daniel Hemric, who entered the race below the Chase cut line, remained there thanks to three separate incidents on Saturday, the most costly a 14-car wreck on Lap 59 that severely damaged his No. 19 Ford.
Hemric finished 11th, but fell 13 points short of Crafton, whose engine problems occurred too late to be of help to Hemric, given that 10 other trucks already were in the garage when Crafton’s motor blew.
“Today was completely full of trials and trying to overcome things,” Hemric said. “All we can do now is try to win races. It wasn’t for lack of effort. We got involved in three or four different situations there and never had the opportunity to get back to the front.”
Sunoco Rookie Rico Abreu finished fourth, his second top-five of the season and his best result in the series on pavement.
Byron is the top seed in the Round of 6, followed by Bell, Peters, Crafton, Kennedy and Sauter. All six drivers start the Round of 6 with points reset to 3,000.
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Put into a position with nothing to lose and everything to gain, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers Daniel Hemric and John Hunter Nemechek have a simple plan for this weekend.
Swing for the fences, they both said.
Saturday’s fred’s 250 Powered by Coca-Cola at Talladega Superspeedway is the final race of the opening round of the inaugural Camping World Truck Series Chase. Only one Chase participant, William Byron, scored a win in the previous two races, thus earning an automatic berth in the Round of 6 that begins next weekend at Martinsville Speedway.
Hemric, driver of the No. 19 Ford for Brad Keselowski Racing, is seventh in points, 15 points outside Johnny Sauter in sixth.
Nemechek, driver of the No. 8 Nemco Motorsports Chevrolet, is eighth, tied with Hemric for points and also 15 points outside the cutoff.
“Everything here is kind of out of your hands,” Nemechek, twice a winner this season, said Friday. “Being at Talladega in the spot that we’re in … being 15 points out, I think it’s way better for me to be able to come here … where anything can happen.
“If we finish top five and someone else got caught up in somebody else’s wreck and we didn’t, we’d have a shot to make it compared to a mile-and-a-half track or short track where they can ride around all day and kind of salvage a finish where they make sure they make it.
“I haven’t quite called in any favors or anything like that. If we were able to qualify up front and run up front all day, as long as we put ourselves in a position to be top four in, where you can make a move coming to the start/finish line, I think you’ll be all right. But who knows?”
Christopher Bell, two-time series champion Matt Crafton, Ben Kennedy and Timothy Peters are second through fifth in points. All have won at least once this year, except for Peters. But he’s won here at Talladega the last two times the series visited the 2.66-mile track.
“In order to win now, we’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing and not change anything at this point,” Hemric said.
“All we can do here is control what we can control, go into it approaching every situation that way, whether it’s practice, qualifying or the race. If we execute on all ends, I see no reason why we shouldn’t have a shot at it.
“At the end of the day … I think I would rather be on the end we’re on. Obviously if you’ve won, that’s even better. But the situation where we can go down swinging and not playing defense all day, I think, is going to be a good thing for (Nemechek) and I, both.”
TALLADEGA, Ala. — NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Casey Mears says he and the Germain Racing No. 13 team are concentrating their efforts only on the remaining five races of 2016 and can’t speak about next year.
“Not at the moment,” Mears said Friday at Talladega Superspeedway. “Right now we’re just focused on what we talked about at the beginning of the season. Focus on the remainder of this year first and foremost.”
Mears, 38, has one victory in 483 career starts at NASCAR’s top level, capturing the 2007 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He has a best points finish of 14th in 2006.
Rumors have Germain opting to replace Mears next season, possibly with NASCAR XFINITY Series driver Ty Dillon. Dillon’s Richard Childress Racing organization has a technical alliance with Germain.
Geico, the No. 13 team’s primary sponsor, is signed through 2018. In many cases, sponsor and driver contracts run concurrently.
“As I know more, we can talk about it,” Mears said. “But right now we’re just focused on getting through this weekend.”
Mears enters Sunday’s Hellmann’s 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) 28th in points. He has five top-10 finishes in 26 careers starts at the 2.66-mile track.
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Carl Edwards joked earlier this week about the possibility of finally, at long last, joining the popular social media site, Twitter.
And the two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship runner-up was asked again about it Friday at Talladega Superspeedway, where Edwards again promised he would join the social media site if he wins the 2016 season championship.
“Yeah, it’s going to happen,’” Edwards said, shaking his head and smiling.
Among NASCAR’s most famous “Twitter-less” drivers, Edwards told reporters he didn’t know how popular the social media site would be by the time he finally acquiesced.
“By the time I join Twitter, Twitter will be like out of fashion probably,” he said. “But that’s my plan … to tweet from Victory Lane at Homestead. That would be good.”
There’s one small hitch: Edwards was admittedly unsure of the details.
“I don’t know what my Twitter handle would be,” he said.
Earlier in the week, reporters attending a NASCAR test at Homestead-Miami Speedway had reminded Edwards of his pledge to join Twitter if he clinched the 2016 Cup title. And he surprised the media group by telling them he had considered posting something from that test session on Twitter via his public relations representative’s account.
Other high-profile drivers such as Jimmie Johnson, Danica Patrick and Brad Keselowski have been active on the site. Dale Earnhardt Jr. famously started using his Twitter account after winning his second Daytona 500 in 2014, and now has 1.76 million followers.
Only one thing is stopping Edwards from joining right now.
“I committed if we won the championship I will join,” Edwards said.
RELATED: Alex Bowman’s time to shine
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Talladega’s favorite son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., won’t be racing this weekend but much to the pleasure of his massive fandom, he will be trackside helping his Hendrick Motorsports team and even working in the MRN radio and NBCSN television booth during Sunday’s Hellmann’s 500.
Earnhardt, who is sidelined for the remainder of the season while he recovers from concussion-like symptoms, was a popular sight in Talladega’s garage Friday afternoon.
He shared his thoughts in an impromptu interview outside his team’s hauler just before opening Sprint Cup Series practice.
Earnhardt seemed eager to return to the announcing booth during the race — something he’ll do on both radio and television.
“It gives me an opportunity to see the racing from a different perspective and that’s an opportunity to learn something about the sport,” Earnhardt said. “It’ll be fun. It’ll be a neat experience.
“I’ve been in the booth before and had a great time at Michigan this year for the XFINITY race. I won’t be doing the whole race [Sunday], but … I’m glad I have the opportunity and to be able to still kinda be around and be a witness to what’s happening at the race track. It’s better than sitting at home.
“I don’t really get nervous any more,” Earnhardt added with a smile. “The only thing that ever made me nervous was driving race cars. I don’t feel nervous. I feel good about going up there. What’s the worst thing that could happen, right?”
Earnhardt was very complimentary of Alex Bowman, who along with veteran Jeff Gordon, has been filling in for him in the No. 88 Mountain Dew Chevrolet.
In six starts for Earnhardt, Bowman has a pair of top-10 finishes. He scored his best showing of seventh place last week at Kansas — while suffering from a stomach bug that made him so sick, the 23-year-old was on a stretcher getting an IV after the race.
“The night before [the race] was a terrible evening as far as how he felt even getting a good night’s sleep,” Earnhardt said. “I was very surprised he was as competitive as he was, as bad as he felt. He was very nauseous throughout the race. He was a real trouper. Most of those guys on track have that grit and determination.
“But he can do it. And he’s capable and belongs out there.”
This weekend’s race at Talladega will be a new challenge for Bowman. However, Earnhardt has high expectations.
“I think he’s going to do great,” Earnhardt said. “He’s going to have fun and he’s going to really enjoy the car because it’s going to be competitive. We’ll sit down and talk a lot and give him all the opportunities and understanding he can. He’s already had some experience so some of the things we’ll talk about will already make sense to him.
“I’m looking forward to sharing what I can throughout the weekend to help him. I’ve told him from the start, now that’s he’s getting more opportunities and I’m out of the car for the rest of the year, he’s able to kind of relax and realize he doesn’t have to bottle up lightning for one particular weekend. He’ll have a lot of opportunities this year to show what he can do.
“He did that last weekend and pretty much every time he’s been in the car he’s shown he’s fast and very capable and I expect that this weekend.”
RELATED: Qualifying order
Qualifying at Talladega Superspeedway has undergone a few different formats over the past five years. The rules for this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races are the same as last year.
There will be two rounds of qualifying with drivers turning one timed lap. The top 12 will advance to the final round. Each driver will take a warm-up lap, the timed lap and a cool-down lap before returning to pit road. In the Sprint Cup Series, this is different from the procedures at intermediate and short tracks or road courses. For the most part, the Camping World Truck Series uses single-truck qualifying.
Based on practice speeds, vehicles will line up on pit road for the first round — rather than nose in or nose out in a pit stall — and NASCAR will release drivers at a predetermined interval. The sanctioning body reserves the right to have more than one vehicle on track at a time. It’s likely that two vehicles will be on track at the same time, but the second vehicle won’t impede or help the one it follows on track.
Following each lap, NASCAR will impound vehicles, and there will be a 10-minute break between rounds. Only during that break may teams make adjustments, and they will only be allowed to adjust tape and use a cool-down unit at that time.
The final round qualifying order will be set from slowest to fastest speeds in the first round with starting positions 1-12 determined by the fastest laps in that second session.
Final practice: Results
| Pos | Car | Driver | From Lap | To Lap | Avg Speed |
| 1 | 18 | Kyle Busch (C) | 11 | 20 | 195.398 |
| 2 | 20 | Matt Kenseth (C) | 11 | 20 | 195.348 |
| 3 | 78 | Martin Truex Jr. (C) | 3 | 12 | 195.314 |
| 4 | 11 | Denny Hamlin (C) | 3 | 12 | 195.314 |
| 5 | 5 | Kasey Kahne | 2 | 11 | 193.453 |
| 6 | 99 | * Ryan Reed (i) | 2 | 11 | 193.394 |
| 7 | 88 | Alex Bowman (i) | 2 | 11 | 193.376 |
| 8 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson (C) | 2 | 11 | 193.348 |
| 9 | 24 | Chase Elliott # (C) | 2 | 11 | 193.133 |
Practice 1: Results
| Pos | Car | Driver | From Lap | To Lap | Avg Speed |
| 1 | 16 | Greg Biffle | 2 | 11 | 195.657 |
| 2 | 44 | Brian Scott | 4 | 13 | 194.855 |
| 3 | 95 | Michael McDowell | 2 | 11 | 194.531 |
| 4 | 4 | Kevin Harvick # (C) | 4 | 13 | 194.201 |
| 5 | 43 | Aric Almirola | 3 | 12 | 194.173 |
| 6 | 88 | Alex Bowman (i) | 8 | 17 | 193.979 |
| 7 | 22 | Joey Logano (C) | 5 | 14 | 193.941 |
| 8 | 24 | Chase Elliott # (C) | 7 | 16 | 193.927 |
| 9 | 10 | Danica Patrick | 3 | 12 | 193.909 |
| 10 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson (C) | 3 | 12 | 193.895 |
| 11 | 21 | * Ryan Blaney # | 3 | 12 | 193.886 |
| 12 | 47 | AJ Allmendinger | 6 | 15 | 193.883 |
| 13 | 5 | Kasey Kahne | 7 | 16 | 193.849 |
| 14 | 42 | Kyle Larson | 7 | 16 | 191.233 |
| 15 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 2 | 11 | 191.115 |
| 16 | 6 | Trevor Bayne | 2 | 11 | 191.073 |
| 17 | 3 | Austin Dillon (C) | 6 | 15 | 189.066 |
| 18 | 2 | Brad Keselowski (C) | 1 | 10 | 188.422 |
| 19 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | 24 | 33 | 187.786 |
| 20 | 34 | Chris Buescher | 1 | 10 | 185.131 |
— Car must run 10 consecutive laps on the track to be included in the above charts. (C) indicates driver is in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. (#) indicates Sunoco Rookie of the Year Candidate. (*) indicates driver required to qualify on time. (i) indicates ineligible for Sprint Cup championship points.
RELATED: Practice 1 | Practice 2 | Top 10-lap consecutive averages
MORE: See the Chase Grid
Jimmie Johnson topped the leaderboard in the final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice session Friday at Talladega Superspeedway, going 196.386 mph in the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
Right behind him was Matt Kenseth in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at 196.338 mph.
Rounding out the top five were Chase Elliott in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet at 196.334 mph, Carl Edwards in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at 196.330 mph and Alex Bowman in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet at 196.330 mph.
Chase drivers Kevin Harvick (already guaranteed to advance to the Round of 8) and Brad Keselowski opted not to participate in the second practice session Friday.
All told, 25 cars took the track for the final session before Saturday’s qualifying at 4 p.m. ET (NBCSN/NBC SportsApp). Edwards felt a vibration in his car, and his No. 19 team changed the transmission in an effort to fix it.
In the first practice session earlier in the day, Roush Fenway Racing dominated with Greg Biffle logging the fastest time in his No. 16 Ford at 198.949 mph.
Right behind him was AJ Allmendinger in the No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet at 198.327 mph.
Chris Buescher was third in the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford at 198.261 mph, while two more Roush Fenway Racing drivers rounded out the top five with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the No. 17 Ford at 198.261 mph and Trevor Bayne in the No. 6 Ford 198.105 mph.
Sprint Cup Series leader Johnson was 15th-fastest in the No. 48 Chevrolet at 195.632 mph.