Truex Jr. speeds way to Busch Pole Award at Auto Club Speedway

Martin Truex Jr. earned his second Busch Pole Award of the season and his first at Auto Club Speedway when he sped his No. 78 Furniture Row Toyota around the track at 186.567 mph in the final round of Friday qualifying.

Truex, who also started on the pole last week at Phoenix, earned his 17th pole of his career.

He was able to speed past two of the fastest cars of the day — including Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, which qualified 10th after setting a track record in the first round of qualifying.

Kyle Busch qualified second for Sunday’s Auto Club 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN) when he wheeled his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota around the track at 186.437 mph.

Kyle Larson in the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, Erik Jones in the No. 20 JGR Toyota and Austin Dillon in the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet rounded out the top five.

Harvick set a track record in the first round of qualifying by zipping around the track at 188.744 mph. Denny Hamlin previously held the record for his 2016 qualifying speed of 188.511 mph. Larson’s first-round lap of 188.516 mph was good enough for second in the round, but also topped the track record.

Numerous cars did not pass pre-qualifying inspection, most notably all four Hendrick Motorsports cars and two of Stewart-Haas Racing’s fast Fords from practice — the No. 14 of Clint Bowyer and the No. 10 of Aric Almirola.

In all, just 24 cars attempted a first-round qualifying lap; 13 did not.

This story will be updated.