NASCAR Championship Race 2024 starting lineup: Martin Truex Jr. wins pole for his last race before retirement

Truex earns back-to-back poles and a chance to ride off into the sunset in the last race of his full-time career

By Steven Taranto

Nov 9, 2024 at 8:14 pm ET • 2 min read

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Martin Truex Jr. won the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway in qualifying on Saturday afternoon, posting a lap of 26.718 (134.741 MPH) to earn the 25th pole of his Cup career and his second in a row in what will be his final start as a full-time Cup Series driver.

The 2017 Cup Series champion, who will make his 684th consecutive start since his full-time career began in 2006 on Sunday, will step back from full-time Cup racing at the end of the 2024 season and transition to racing part-time and the next phase of his life.

Listen to that crowd! 🔊@joeylogano tried, but it's not enough to take the #BuschLightPole away from @MartinTruex_Jr! pic.twitter.com/6WqkiL0K4j
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) November 9, 2024

Starting alongside Truex in second will be Joey Logano, who will lead all Championship 4 drivers to the green flag in Sunday's title race. He will be followed by William Byron in eighth, Tyler Reddick in 10th, and defending Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney in 17th. Blaney struggled getting through turn 1 on his qualifying lap, and as a result will be the only Championship 4 driver who will start outside the top 10. It should be noted that one year ago, Blaney also started deepest of all Championship 4 drivers in the field in 15th and proceeded to win the championship by finishing second.

As for Logano, his team failed pre-race tech inspection twice, leading to the ejection of a crew member and the loss of pit selection for Sunday's race.

A big moment in Turns 1 and 2 costs @Blaney!

The No. 12 misses out on the final round! #BuschLightPole pic.twitter.com/WAQgpqV2Cc
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) November 9, 2024

A lack of grip in turn 1 was a common theme throughout qualifying, as multiple drivers had issues getting their cars to stick in that section of the racetrack. Faring worst of all was Josh Berry, who could not get any grip in turn 1 and proceeded to spin in the apex of turns 1 and 2, backing into the outside wall on a long slide down the racetrack.

This part of the track has been tricky all afternoon! @joshberry loses control of his No. 4 car! #BuschLightPole pic.twitter.com/DI0xVxFTWQ
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) November 9, 2024

After being considerably off the pace in practice on Friday, the Team AmeriVet No. 50 was disallowed from making a qualifying attempt after failing pre-race tech inspection four times in total. Jeb Burton will start shotgun on the field in 40th and will have to serve a stop-and-go pit road penalty following the start of Sunday's race. Burton, an Xfinity Series regular and the son of 2002 Daytona 500 champion Ward Burton, will make his first Cup start since Richmond in the spring of 2019.