Ty Gibbs will lead the field to the green flag in Sunday’s Cup race at Pocono Raceway after claiming the pole in Saturday’s qualifying session at the 2.5-mile speedway.
Gibbs earned his second career Cup pole with a lap of 170.039 mph.
“It was really, really fun and the car is really good,” Gibbs told NBC Sports’ Kim Coon. “So, we’ll see what we can do and hopefully we can go win (Sunday).”
MORE: Cup starting lineup
William Byron, who won the pole for last year’s race and led 60 laps in the event, will start second after a qualifying lap of 169.661 mph.
Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin occupy the second row. Truex qualified third with a lap of 169.221 mph. Hamlin, the track’s all-time Cup winner, earned the fourth starting spot with a lap of 169.049 mph.
Stewart-Haas Racing’s Josh Berry qualified fifth at 169.135 mph. Alex Bowman, who won last weekend’s Chicago Street Race to snap an 80-race winless drought, qualified sixth at 168.723 mph.
Spire Motorsports’ Zane Smith made the final round of qualifying for the first time. The Cup rookie will start ninth after a lap of 167.926 mph.
Tyler Reddick (168.083 mph) will start seventh after overcoming a spin in practice Saturday. Kyle Larson (168.385) also spun in practice. He will start 12th.
Bubba Wallace enters the race as the first driver below the playoff cutline. He’s 45 points behind Chris Buescher. Wallace qualified 29th at 166.830 mph, while Buescher will start 18th at 167.770 mph.
Sunday’s race airs at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network. Coverage begins at 2 p.m. ET.