Matt Kenseth Will Lead the Field to Green in Sunday’s TOYOTA OWNERS 400

Toyota Camry driver Matt Kenseth captured the top starting position for Sunday’s TOYOTA OWNERS 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond International Raceway (Richmond). With a speed of 121.076 mph, Kenseth will lead the field to green on Sunday afternoon. He will be joined by Wood Brothers Racing driver Ryan Blaney on the front row, which is his third front row start this season.

Drivers participated in three rounds of knockout qualifying to determine the starting order. In the final round, Kenseth held on to the coveted first place starting position to earn his first pole position of the season.

“It’s a tough track. It’s such a fine line because you have to be patient and not overdrive it but you can’t underdrive it either,” said Kenseth. “It’s just kind of a fine edge and I felt like my first lap the last round I did really good in 1 and 2 not into 3 and 4 and the opposite in the second lap. I didn’t feel like I had the perfect lap but I had good speed.”

Rounding out the top-five were fellow Toyota driver Martin Truex, Jr. followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Joey Logano. Truex has had a strong season so far, and his third-place qualifying adds to his resume.

“We gained on it. I felt like our first round I felt really good about the car,” said Truex. “We were able to be fifth I think with only running one lap. We were second of the cars that had only run one lap, so I felt really good about it and we went out in the second round and the first lap was awful. The car just wouldn’t hook up and then the second lap it got better, but I still didn’t feel like we got back to where we were in the first round. So we made some changes and the third round was for sure better, but I felt like we were still missing something. I should’ve run three laps and I might’ve been even quicker, but all in all it was a good job by the guys and third is a great starting spot here. Up front where we need be. Hopefully, we can keep her up front all day.”

RIR PR