Martin Truex Jr., who is retiring from full-time racing in two weeks, won the pole in Saturday qualifying at Martinsville.
Truex turned a lap at 95.951 mph to beat Hendrick Motorsports drivers Chase Elliott and William Byron. Truex was eliminated from the playoffs in the first round and Elliott and Byron are trying to make the championship four.
Chase Briscoe in a Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing was fourth, followed by Truex teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing Ty Gibbs. Harrison Burton, who is losing his seat with Wood Brothers Racing in two weeks, was sixth. Briscoe, Gibbs, Burton and Truex have already been eliminated from the playoffs.
Alex Bowman of Hendrick was seventh and followed by Ryan Preece of SHR, Kyle Larson of Hendrick and Austin Dillon of Richard Childress Racing.
Joey Logano, who is already locked into the championship four, qualified 12th — two spots ahead of Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney. Title contender Christopher Bell of JGR qualified 16th while Tyler Reddick, who is already locked into the championship race, qualified 31st.
Denny Hamlin, meanwhile, had a short Saturday at Martinsville as he crashed during practice due to a stuck throttle. The damage to his No. 11 Toyota was so severe that JGR spent the remainder of the session deciding if the car could be repaired or if he’d need a backup.
His car was fast for the 33 laps he made before he backed it into the wall, and despite his abbreviated session he ranked third on the speed chart.
The team decided to repair his car, but either way, Hamlin couldn’t make a qualifying attempt and will start last Sunday.
Hamlin is below the elimination cutline and can only make the championship four with a victory Sunday or significant collapses by the drivers ahead of him in the standings.
Hamlin is a five-time winner at Martinsville, but hasn’t been to victory lane since 2015.
“Nothing from the past is guaranteed in the future. The fall race, it seems like everyone brings their best, and we have had some unfortunate circumstances at the end of the races here that have kept us out of victory lane,” Hamlin said. “That is just part of it. You just hope that the law of averages work themselves out.
“It is like anything with data and analytics, one at-bat — anything can happen. You just never know. You just hope you are on the good end of fortune, right?”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.