Qualifying report
NASCAR Cup Darlington
Martin Truex Jr. beats Bubba Wallace for Darlington Cup pole
Martin Truex Jr. won the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway in what became an unpredictable qualifying session.
Jim Utter
Edited: May 13, 2023, 8:41 PM
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Truex, whose No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, had not shown to be particularly fast in Saturday’s practice session, rocketed to the top of the final round of qualifying with an average lap speed of 169.409 mph.
Brad Keselowski, who had posted the fastest lap of the day in the first round, was the final car to make a qualifying attempt. However, he only ended up 10th fastest among the 10 cars in the final round.
The pole is the first of the 2023 season for Truex, first at Darlington and 21st of his career.
“Honestly, the guys made a really good adjustment. I felt like we left a little on the table in Round 1,” Truex said. “They made the adjustment to help me off (Turn) 4 and it worked. I was not really sure what kind of lap time we were going to need to run or how the tires would affect it, but we nailed the balance really good.
“I was definitely really happy with that. The guys have been working really hard. Qualifying has never really been our greatest thing. Especially with this (Next Gen) car last year, we struggled a lot in qualifying. We’ve been working hard on it.
“This (car) is really fast so we’ll have some fun tomorrow.”
Bubba Wallace ended up second-fastest (169.339 mph) as Toyotas locked in the front row.
They were followed by three Chevrolets – Ricky Stenhouse Jr., William Byron and Ross Chastain – in the top five.
Completing the top-10 lineup are Daniel Suarez, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick and Keselowski.
Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 19 
Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 1 29.028 169.409 2 23 Bubba Wallace Toyota 1 29.040 0.012 0.012 169.339 3 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Chevrolet 1 29.141 0.113 0.101 168.752 4 24 William Byron Chevrolet 1 29.212 0.184 0.071 168.342 5 1 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 1 29.255 0.227 0.043 168.094 6 99 
Daniel Suarez Chevrolet 1 29.300 0.272 0.045 167.836 7 5 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 1 29.348 0.320 0.048 167.562 8 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 1 29.365 0.337 0.017 167.465 9 45 Tyler Reddick Toyota 1 29.392 0.364 0.027 167.311 10 6 Brad Keselowski Ford 1 29.572 0.544 0.180 166.292
Round 1 / Group A
Wallace ended up with the fastest average speed in Group A (169.083 mph).
Chastain was second-fastest (168.920 mph) and Reddick was third (168.717 mph).
Also advancing to the final round were Stenhouse and Byron.
Among those who failed to advance were Chase Elliott – who was fastest in Saturday’s practice sessions, Austin Dillon and Michael McDowell.
Corey LaJoie tagged the wall on his qualifying run but did not appear to do serious damage to his No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 23 Bubba Wallace Toyota 1 29.084 169.083 2 1 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 1 29.112 0.028 0.028 168.920 3 45 Tyler Reddick Toyota 1 29.147 0.063 0.035 168.717 4 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Chevrolet 1 29.183 0.099 0.036 168.509 5 24 William Byron Chevrolet 1 29.246 0.162 0.063 168.146 6 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 1 29.291 0.207 0.045 167.888 7 34 Michael McDowell Ford 1 29.324 0.240 0.033 167.699 8 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 1 29.354 0.270 0.030 167.527 9 2 Austin Cindric Ford 1 29.428 0.344 0.074 167.106 10 17 Chris Buescher Ford 1 29.456 0.372 0.028 166.947 11 43 Erik Jones Chevrolet 1 29.463 0.379 0.007 166.908 12 16 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 1 29.501 0.417 0.038 166.693 13 14 Chase Briscoe Ford 1 29.684 0.600 0.183 165.665 14 41 Ryan Preece Ford 1 29.762 0.678 0.078 165.231 15 77 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 1 29.961 0.877 0.199 164.133 16 7 Corey Lajoie Chevrolet 1 30.066 0.982 0.105 163.560 17 78 B.J. McLeod Chevrolet 1 30.577 1.493 0.511 160.827 18 15 Brennan Poole Ford 1 30.684 1.600 0.107 160.266
Round 1 / Group B
Keselowski set a blistering pace in Group B with an average lap speed of 170.324 mph – the fastest lap of the day at the time.
Truex was second-fastest (169.918 mph) and Suarez was third (169.889 mph).
Also advancing to the final round were Hamlin and Larson.
Among those who failed to advance were Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, Ryan Blaney and Kevin Harvick.
Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 6 Brad Keselowski Ford 1 28.872 170.324 2 19 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 1 28.941 0.069 0.069 169.918 3 99 Daniel Suarez Chevrolet 1 28.946 0.074 0.005 169.889 4 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 1 29.012 0.140 0.066 169.502 5 5 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 1 29.052 0.180 0.040 169.269 6 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 1 29.059 0.187 0.007 169.228 7 8 Kyle Busch Chevrolet 1 29.107 0.235 0.048 168.949 8 54 Ty Gibbs Toyota 1 29.114 0.242 0.007 168.908 9 21 Harrison Burton Ford 1 29.117 0.245 0.003 168.891 10 22 Joey Logano Ford 1 29.139 0.267 0.022 168.764 11 20 Christopher Bell Toyota 1 29.238 0.366 0.099 168.192 12 10 Aric Almirola Ford 1 29.271 0.399 0.033 168.002 13 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 1 29.348 0.476 0.077 167.562 14 31 Justin Haley Chevrolet 1 29.386 0.514 0.038 167.345 15 48 Josh Berry Chevrolet 1 29.399 0.527 0.013 167.271 16 38 Todd Gilliland Ford 1 29.413 0.541 0.014 167.191 17 51 Ryan Newman Ford 1 29.440 0.568 0.027 167.038 18 42 Noah Gragson Chevrolet 1 29.477 0.605 0.037 166.828
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