Aric Almirola will start second at Martinsville Speedway in the No. 10 Nascar Ford Mustang for Saturday’s Cup Series race. Almirola was only barely bested by Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
Almirola’s No. 10 Mustang sped around the asphalt oval in just 19.799 seconds with a top speed of 95.641 mph. Elliott’s No. 9 Camaro posted a qualifying time of 19.694 seconds and a top speed of 96.151 mph. Almirola leads a Nascar Ford trio in the top five, followed by the No. 41 Mustang of Cole Custer in third and the No. 17 Mustang in fourth. William Byron, who drives the No. 24 Camaro, will start fifth.
It’s worth noting that this is Almirola’s final season behind the wheel of a Cup Series racecar, as he will retire at the conclusion of the 2022 season.
Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Camaro, will start 15th. Bowman took the win in dramatic fashion the last time the Cup Series visited this track back in November 2021, bumping Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota TRD Camry out of the way to the checkered flag.
Meanwhile, the No. 16 Nascar Camaro driven by AJ Allmendinger was not allowed to qualify after failing pre-qualifying inspection multiple times. Allmendinger will be forced to serve a pass-through penalty once the green flag drops at Martinsville Speedway, and has had an engineer ejected from the weekend’s activities. Allmendinger’s No. 16 machine was the only one that failed inspection more than once.
The green flag at Martinsville will drop at 7:30 p.m. ET on April 9th, weather permitting. The field will be paced by the series’ first-ever fully electric pace truck, a 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning.
| Pos | Car Number | Driver | Team | Time | Speed | Car |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9 | Chase Elliott | LLumar Chevrolet | 19.694 | 96.151 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 2 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Smithfield Spirals Ford | 19.799 | 95.641 | Ford Mustang |
| 3 | 41 | Cole Custer | HaasTooling.com Ford | 19.808 | 95.598 | Ford Mustang |
| 4 | 17 | Chris Buescher | Fastenal Ford | 19.85 | 95.395 | Ford Mustang |
| 5 | 24 | William Byron | RaptorTough.com Chevrolet | 19.893 | 95.189 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 6 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Subway Ford | 19.941 | 94.96 | Ford Mustang |
| 7 | 20 | Christopher Bell | Yahoo! Toyota | 19.965 | 94.846 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 8 | 5 | Kyle Larson | HendrickCars.com Chevrolet | 20.003 | 94.666 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 9 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | Fastenal Ford | 20.015 | 94.609 | Ford Mustang |
| 10 | 38 | Todd Gilliland # | Cross Country Adjusting Ford | 20.062 | 94.387 | Ford Mustang |
| 11 | 18 | Kyle Busch | M&M's Crunchy Cookie Toyota | 19.775 | 95.757 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 12 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Advance Auto Parts Ford | 19.789 | 95.69 | Ford Mustang |
| 13 | 2 | Austin Cindric # | Menards/Moen Ford | 19.79 | 95.685 | Ford Mustang |
| 14 | 22 | Joey Logano | Shell Pennzoil Ford | 19.792 | 95.675 | Ford Mustang |
| 15 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Ally Chevrolet | 19.863 | 95.333 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 16 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Navage Nasal Care Ford | 19.863 | 95.333 | Ford Mustang |
| 17 | 31 | Justin Haley | LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet | 19.867 | 95.314 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 18 | 45 | Kurt Busch | McDonald's/Money Lion Toyota | 19.901 | 95.151 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 19 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | Mahindra Tractors Ford | 19.904 | 95.137 | Ford Mustang |
| 20 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Bass Pro Shops Toyota | 19.937 | 94.979 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 21 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | DoorDash Toyota | 19.965 | 94.846 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 22 | 8 | Tyler Reddick | 3CHI Chevrolet | 19.982 | 94.765 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 23 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Get Bioethanol Chevrolet | 19.986 | 94.746 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 24 | 43 | Erik Jones | FOCUSfactor Chevrolet | 19.996 | 94.699 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 25 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota | 20.083 | 94.289 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 26 | 7 | Corey LaJoie | Built.com Chevrolet | 20.095 | 94.232 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 27 | 1 | Ross Chastain | GoPro Chevrolet | 20.1 | 94.209 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 28 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Kroger/Louisiana Hot Sauce Chevrolet | 20.113 | 94.148 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 29 | 21 | Harrison Burton # | Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford | 20.134 | 94.05 | Ford Mustang |
| 30 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | GoPro Chevrolet | 20.145 | 93.999 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 31 | 77 | Josh Bilicki(i) | Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet | 20.269 | 93.423 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 32 | 15 | JJ Yeley(i) | Ford | 20.494 | 92.398 | Ford Mustang |
| 33 | 78 | BJ McLeod | Epilepsy Foundation Ford | 20.545 | 92.168 | Ford Mustang |
| 34 | 42 | Ty Dillon | Chevyliners.com Chevrolet | 20.591 | 91.963 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 35 | 51 | Cody Ware | Nurtec ODT Ford | 21.021 | 90.081 | Ford Mustang |
| 36 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger(i) | Action Industries Chevrolet | 0 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
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