8 of the last 10 NASCAR Cup Series winners came from a top 5 spot in the starting lineup. Which is why qualifying on Saturday morning to set the field for Sunday’s 4EVER 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN) was vastly important.

5 of the 8 playoff drivers made it to the second and final round of qualifying to lock themselves into a top 10 starting spot. Among them, 3 of which will start in the top 5 including pole sitter Martin Truex Jr. who scored his first pole in the last 20 races (Darlington May 2023) with a lap of 167.411 mph in his No. 19 Toyota.

It was Truex’ 22nd career pole but first in 19 starts on the 1.5-mile South Florida track. It’s also Toyota’s 500th career NASCAR pole with 7 of the 500 coming this postseason. The only pole in the playoffs that Toyota hasn’t won was in Talladega.

For Truex, he’s started in the top 5 in 4 of the last 7 weeks too and is hopeful of netting his first win here since 2017. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has 4 top 3 finishes in his last 6 starts at Homestead.

He’ll have some familiar company up front. Both 23XI Racing Toyota’s will start 2nd and 3rd respectively with Bubba Wallace not only netting his first career top 10 start at Homestead (23rd, 27th, 17th, 19th previously) but his 8th top 10 start in the last 9 races on the season as well.

Wallace, the quickest in practice, qualified with a speed of 167.115 mph.

Tyler Reddick, who was quickest in Group B of qualifying, went 167.955 mph in his No. 45 Toyota which was good enough to roll off P3 on Sunday. He’s after his 3rd top 5 finish in his 4th career Homestead start as this marks his best starting spot in the four with being 24th, 35th, 7th in the previous 3. This is his 2nd top 3 starting spot in the last 3 weeks.

Toyota has won two of the last four Homestead races including four of the last six and five of the last eight and now has the top 3 starting spots.

Brad Keselowski (166.579 mph) and Kyle Larson (166.103 mph) rounded out the top five of qualifying.

Denny Hamlin (11th), Christopher Bell (13th) and Chris Buescher (17th) were eliminated in the opening round.

For Hamlin, he had 9 straight starting spot in the top 8 here including a streak of 6 poles in 7 races (5 straight) entering last October. He’d qualify 14th in 2022. This year, he starts 11th. He’s started 10th, 12th, 9th, 15th and now on the Inside of Row 6 in the last five races on the season.

For Bell, he’s qualified 3rd, 2nd in the last two years prior to Saturday. On the season, he’s also qualified on the front row in 5 of the last 7 races too. He’ll now come from the Inside of Row 7.

For Buescher, this is his worst starting spot here since 2019 (20th). He’s started in the top 5 in 2 of the last 4 races on the season too.

Joey Logano will start last (36th) after a practice crash late in Group B.

Starting Lineup

Row 1: Martin Truex Jr., Bubba Wallace

Row 2: Tyler Reddick, Brad Keselowski

Row 3: Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon

Row 4: William Byron, Ross Chastain

Row 5: Ty Gibbs R, Ryan Blaney

Row 6: Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman

Row 7: Christopher Bell, Daniel Suarez

Row 8: Michael McDowell, Chase Elliott

Row 9: Chris Buescher, Kyle Busch

Row 10: Erik Jones, Corey LaJoie

Row 11: Chase Briscoe, Kevin Harvick

Row 12: Ricky Stenhouse Jr., John Hunter Nemechek

Row 13: AJ Allmendinger, Austin Cindric

Row 14: Justin Haley, Harrison Burtonj

Row 15: Ryan Preece, Aric Almirola

Row 16: JJ Yeley, Todd Gilliland

Row 17: Ty Dillon, Ryan Newman

Row 18: Josh Bilicki, Joey Logano