Updated: 10:15 p.m ET
JOLIET, Ill. – Paul Menard captured his second career pole, and first since 2008, in qualifying for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Overton’s 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.
Menard, who also topped Round 1, posted a lap of 180.012 mph in the final round to take the top spot for the first time since he won the pole for the 2008 July race at Daytona International Speedway.
“My guys did a hell of a job today,” Menard said. “We weren’t very good in practice. We did a mock run that was so loose that we had to abort it and never really got a true mock run. We had speed and all through those rounds we got a little too loose in Round 2 and we adjusted for it. Round 3 drove like rails. It was good.”
The pole came in Menard’s 17th race driving the No. 21 Ford for Wood Brothers Racing, which now has 122 poles.
Chicagoland Pole Winners | All-Time Pole Winners
Ryan Blaney, who drove the No. 21 last season, qualified second in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford with a lap of 179.880 mph.
“I hate to lose the pole but if I have to lose it to anybody it is cool to lose to my former team, the Wood Brothers and Paul have been good all year,” Blaney said. “It is cool that they got themselves a pole this year now. I think our PPG Ford Fusion is pretty fast. We got better each round. That is something this team does a really good job of I think, improving round to round. That is something you need in this deal. Can’t thank everybody enough for working in this heat all day. It has been hot. It is a long day for these guys out here.”
Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer rounded out the top five.
Denny Hamlin, who won at Chicagoland in 2015, originally qualified fourth, but was one of four drivers that had their time’s disallowed after post qualifying inspection joining Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Chris Buescher.
With Chicago being an impound race, all cars underwent a full inspection following qualifying and the official lineup was issued at 10:12 p.m. ET.
Aric Almirola, Brad Keselowski, William Byron, Erik Jones, Daniel Suarez, Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano round out the top-12 starters.
Kyle Busch, who won at Chicagoland in 2008 and today’s Xfinity Series race winner Kyle Larson will start 16th and 18th, respectively.
“I was just really, really loose there in qualifying,” said Larson, who won the Xfinity Series race earlier in the day. “I couldn’t really get into the corner as quickly as I needed to or back to the throttle as aggressively as I needed to. Pretty slow, but we will be alright in race trim.”
Truex Jr., who is going for his third straight win at Chicagoland, originally qualified 12th after making two attempts in Round 2 to reach the final round.
Along with Larson, Menard, Elliott, Suarez and Harvick competed in the Xfinity race prior to qualifying on a hot day in Joliet.
“After the race I went back to the hauler—I’m on my fourth or fifth different pair of underwear,” Menard said. “Just been keeping it fresh, I guess. Drank some pickle juice, lot of ice packs and I feel pretty good.”
