Martin Truex Jr. wins pole for Martinsville

We’ll avoid a MartinTruexsville joke while informing you that Martin Truex Jr. will start first for Sunday’s race at Martinsville.

It’s the fifth pole of 2016 for Truex and comes a week after he was eliminated from the second round of the Chase. Truex started first last week at Talladega but ended up finishing last after his engine blew up just 41 laps into the 188-lap race.

Joey Logano qualified second, the highest Chase driver in the field. Logano was the dominant car during the 2015 Martinsville fall race but was taken out by Matt Kenseth in revenge for Kenseth’s spin off Logano’s bumper two weeks prior at Kansas.

Five of the eight remaining Chase drivers made the third and final round of qualifying. The only Joe Gibbs Racing car that didn’t make the final round was Matt Kenseth, who will start 17th. The Stewart-Haas Racing drivers of Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch are the only two Chase drivers starting behind Kenseth.

Jeff Gordon qualified 10th for what presumably is his final Sprint Cup Series start. It’s Gordon’s eighth race filling in for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and he said Friday that while he doesn’t think he’ll ever be racing a Cup car again, to never say never.

Here’s the starting lineup for Sunday.

1. Martin Truex Jr.
2. Joey Logano (Chase)
3. Jimmie Johnson (Chase)
4. AJ Allmendinger
5. Chase Elliott
6. Tony Stewart
7. Carl Edwards (Chase)
8. Denny Hamlin (Chase)
9. Kyle Busch (Chase)
10. Jeff Gordon
11. Kyle Larson
12. David Ragan
13. Ryan Newman
14. Jamie McMurray
15. Ryan Blaney
16. Aric Almirola
17. Matt Kenseth (Chase)
18. Paul Menard
19. Brad Keselowski
20. Kevin Harvick (Chase)
21. Regan Smith
22. Kasey Kahne
23. Kurt Busch (Chase)
24. Danica Patrick
25. Greg Biffle
26. Casey Mears
27. Matt DiBenedetto
28. Clint Bowyer
29. Chris Buescher
30. Michael McDowell
31. Trevor Bayne
32. Austin Dillon
33. Landon Cassia
34. Reed Sorenson
35. Brian Scot
36. Gray Gaulding
37. Dylan Lupton
38. Jeffrey Earnhardt
39. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
40. Michael Annett

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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