MARTINSVILLE, Va. - On his final lap – the final lap of qualifying Saturday afternoon – Ryan Preece topped the competition to earn his first career NASCAR Cup Series Busch pole award with a lap of 94.779 mph in his No. 41 Ford at Martinsville Speedway.
The 32-year old Connecticut native is the 14th driver to notch his first pole position at the .526-mile Virginia track. He’ll start alongside Daniel Suárez on the front row for Sunday’s race.
Suárez and Preece’s SHR teammate Aric Almirola turned the exact same lap time – down to a thousandth of a second (20.081), but Suárez got the front row start by virtue of team points.
“I was fighting loose that first lap,” Preece said with a smile, adding, “It’s a pole not a race.
“So I guess from a company standpoint it makes us all very optimistic for tomorrow, and can to just be smart and we can have good days. It certainly shows that our short track program is really good and I know our superspeedway program has been extremely good too and we’ll keep working on that.”
Of note, Preece has won a pole in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – and he won both those races – at Iowa in 2017 and at Nashville in 2022, respectively.
“Hopefully I can do a good job and keep those statistics going.”
Almirola will start on the second row alongside his Stewart-Haas teammate Chase Briscoe – all four SHR cars advanced to the final round of qualifying. Martin Truex. Jr. and Tyler Reddick will start on the third row, followed by SHR’s Kevin Harvick and defending race winner William Byron. Bubba Wallace and Chris Buescher round out the top 10.
Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott will roll off 24th in his first race back from injury. The former Martinsville winner broke his leg six weeks ago and is marking his return to the seat this weekend.
“Felt pretty good, but abysmal qualifying lap and I can’t really blame my leg on that one,” Elliott said. “I had a pretty good first lap and then really messed up in (turn) two on the second one. Judging off of practice, starting in the back is going to be a lot of fun, looking forward to that in the ole’ NAPA Chevy.”
Of his comfort level, Elliott said, “I feel fine in the car. My entire practice run I felt fine and once you kind of get out there on the track and start focusing on the little things that you need to be doing in your car, some of that goes away so that’s a good thing. My qualifying lap wasn’t because of that, just a poor effort.’”
The current NASCAR Cup Series championship leader Christopher Bell will roll off 22nd. His teammate, Ty Gibbs was the fastest rookie, qualifying 12th.
WDUN will carry live MRN Radio coverage of the NASCAR race weekend from Martinsville Speedway, beginning with Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series Call811.com Before You Dig 250 at 7 pm on 102.9 FM, AM 550 and streaming live on AccessWDUN. Coverage continues on Sunday with the NASCAR Cup Series NOCO 400 at 2 pm on 102.9 FM, AM 550 and streaming live on AccessWDUN.
NASCAR Cup Series
Martinsville Speedway – Martinsville, VA
NOCO 400 – April 15, 2023
Saturday’s Qualifying Results
1. (41) Ryan Preece, Ford, 94.780 mph.
2. (99) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 94.298 mph.
3. (10) Aric Almirola, Ford, 94.298 mph.
4. (14) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 94.153 mph.
5. (19) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 94.120 mph.
6. (45) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 94.078 mph.
7. (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 93.975 mph.
8. (24) William Byron, Chevrolet, 93.952 mph.
9. (23) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 93.896 mph.
10. (17) Chris Buescher, Ford, 93.784 mph.
11. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
12. (54) Ty Gibbs #, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
13. (38) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 0.000 mph.
14. (16) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
15. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 0.000 mph.
16. (47) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
17. (8) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
18. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
19. (5) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
20. (34) Michael McDowell, Ford, 0.000 mph.
21. (6) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 0.000 mph.
22. (20) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
23. (48) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
24. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
25. (2) Austin Cindric, Ford, 0.000 mph.
26. (31) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
27. (7) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
28. (43) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
29. (42) Noah Gragson #, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
30. (78) Anthony Alfredo(i), Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
31. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 0.000 mph.
32. (21) Harrison Burton, Ford, 0.000 mph.
33. (51) Zane Smith(i), Ford, 0.000 mph.
34. (1) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
35. (77) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
36. (15) J.J. Yeley(i), Ford, 0.000 mph.
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
