By DAN GELSTON AP Sports Writer
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (AP) — Martin Truex Jr. was the highest-qualifying playoff driver among the 16 in the field for Sunday’s Cup race at Watkins Glen International, a needed boost for the 2017 NASCAR champion who needs a win to guarantee himself a spot in the next round.
Truex was one of only five playoff drivers to crack the top 10 in starting order Saturday at the 2.45-mile road course. Alex Bowman was fourth and Austin Cindric fifth. Joey Logano, who advanced to the next round after last weekend’s win at Atlanta, was seventh and Daniel Suarez eighth.
Ross Chastain posted a top speed of 122.279 mph to win the pole, leading a top 10 that included road-course aces Shane Van Gisbergen and AJ Allmendinger trying their best to play postseason spoiler.
Watkins Glen is the second race of the playoffs, and the field will be cut to 12 following next week’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Brad Keselowski, Harrison Burton, Truex and Chase Briscoe are at the bottom four of the playoff standings and are essentially in win-or-else mode. Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick should feel safe above the cutoff line. The other eight drivers need strong points outings — or a win, of course — to remain in the field of 12.
Keselowski starts 28th and Burton starts 33rd among the 38 drivers in Sunday’s race.
Led by Chastain, Chevrolet put five drivers in the top 10, Ford had four and Truex was the lone Toyota.
Truex is winless in his final full season in NASCAR, and the Joe Gibbs Racing driver understood the challenges ahead as he entered Sunday in 15th in the playoff field and 19 points below the cutoff.
“You call it a slump. Great players get in slumps in other sports, and that is what I feel like it is,” Truex said. “I feel like we are doing a lot of good things We have lot of speed and put ourselves in position, we just have to put it all together. Some days I make mistakes, some days the team makes mistakes, some days, last week, we got caught up in an accident. There has been a lot of that. Just have to put it together on one day and hopefully that is this weekend.”