For the third time in this year's playoffs,
Truex heads into Sunday's race at
He got a boost Saturday with a pole-winning run in qualifying. Truex's lap at 94.153 mph was good enough for his third pole of the season and second consecutive.
Wow, did he need it.
Truex has just one top-10 finish through the first seven races of the playoffs — it forced him to stave off elimination at the end of the rounds of 16 and 12 — and although he started from the pole last week at
“It’s been really tough, and nothing has really gone right,” Truex said Saturday. “I thought we were sitting in a really good position last week. Things were going pretty well, and then we pit and the bottom falls out. We will reset. We are ready to go again. This is a new week and a new opportunity, and we’ve been in this position before. Let’s just go see what we can do.”
Among Truex's challengers are teammate Hamlin, who leads all active drivers at Martinsville with five career wins, and
Also below the cutline is
Hamlin, meanwhile, is trying to balance his own desire to make the championship race with his hopes that Reddick can earn a spot for the team that Hamlin co-owns.
“The way I see it is I’ve got two shots to get into the final four," Hamlin said. "I certainly would rather do it on the driver’s side, because there are going to be far less opportunities to do that, than what it would be on the owner’s side.
"This weekend, (Reddick is) unfortunately competitors, and I will treat them as that.”
Truex will lead non-playoff drivers
The remainder of the playoff field was completed by Blaney in 11th, Byron in 16th, Buscher in 18th and Reddick in 19th.
ALMIROLA OUT AT SHR
But Smithfield said Saturday morning that “the time has come for Smithfield to end our
Smithfield has sponsored for Almirola since 2012.
“I’d like to not quit cold turkey. I think there are some opportunities, but it’s hard,” Almirola said. "It’s challenging to figure out things that make sense for race teams to do it part-time. Most race teams want somebody to run full-time and race for a championship, so we’ll see if we can get it worked out.
“I’d love to still scratch the itch, but just don’t want to do it like I have been doing it for the last 12 years, where it’s 38 weeks and it’s a grind.”
The 39-year-old did not rule out running Xfinity Series races in the future.
Almirola has been with SHR since 2018. He scored two of his three career Cup wins with the organization and finished a career-high fifth in the points in 2018.
ODDS AND ENDS
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