NASCAR at Pocono 2016 Qualifying Results: Race Order, Final Times and Reaction

During a year in which he has had his fair share of rotten luck, the racing gods smiled down upon Martin Truex Jr. on Friday. Truex secured the pole for Sunday's Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.

The No. 78 car posted a top speed of 179.244 mph and overall time of 50.211 seconds in the final round of qualifying, which was 0.104 seconds faster than Carl Edwards. Paul Menard, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman rounded out the five fastest cards. Below is the full running order for Sunday, per NASCAR.com:

Starting Pos.	Driver	Top Speed (Final Round)	Best Time (Final Round)
1	Martin Truex Jr.	179.244	50.211
2	Carl Edwards	178.873	50.315
3	Paul Menard	178.671	50.372
4	Denny Hamlin	178.540	50.409
5	Ryan Newman	178.433	50.439
6	Tony Stewart	178.394	50.450
7	Brad Keselowski	178.359	50.460
8	Chase Elliott	177.571	50.684
9	Matt Kenseth	177.413	50.729
10	Joey Logano	177.151	50.804
11	Kyle Larson	177.082	50.824
12	Austin Dillon	176.835	50.895
13	A.J. Allmendinger	177.322	50.755
14	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	177.281	50.767
15	Kurt Busch	177.183	50.795
16	Kyle Busch	177.054	50.832
17	Kevin Harvick	176.988	50.851
18	Ryan Blaney	176.880	50.882
19	Jamie McMurray	176.574	50.970
20	Casey Mears	176.478	50.998
21	Jimmie Johnson	176.091	51.110
22	Chris Buescher	176.084	51.112
23	Kasey Kahne	175.901	51.165
24	Jeff Gordon	175.706	51.222
25	Greg Biffle	175.603	51.252
26	Danica Patrick	175.404	51.310
27	Aric Almirola	174.985	51.433
28	Clint Bowyer	174.257	51.648
29	Michael McDowell	174.236	51.654
30	Regan Smith	173.826	51.776
31	Trevor Bayne	173.534	51.863
32	Landon Cassill	173.491	51.876
33	David Ragan	173.077	52.000
34	Matt DiBenedetto	172.874	52.061
35	Brian Scott	172.209	52.262
36	Cole Whitt	171.716	52.412
37	Jeb Burton	171.429	52.500
38	Josh Wise	170.451	52.801
39	Michael Annett	169.750	53.019
40	Reed Sorenson	158.615	56.741

Truex already has one win this season, so he's all but assured of a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. In that respect, he isn't heading into the weekend in desperate need of a victory. Getting a second checkered flag would mean climbing in the standings, though, potentially as high as third place—up from ninth.

NASCAR on NBCSN shared his reaction after the race:

Perhaps it's fate that Truex's last pole—the Coca-Cola 600 on May 29—coincided with his only win in 2016.

A little further down the starting grid, Jeff Gordon qualified for 24th ahead of his second race back since he started filling in for an injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. Gordon started in 21st and finished in 13th in last week's Brickyard 400.

All things considered, that was a more than positive result for Gordon. Historically speaking, starting in 24th may not be a bad development for the legendary driver, either. He placed second at Gobowling.com 400 at Pocono in August 2013 despite qualifying for 22nd. The year before that, he won after starting 27th.

ESPN.com's Bob Pockrass shared an anecdote from one fan who was simply happy to see Gordon at Pocono again:

Gordon's performance Sunday won't have any Chase implications, but seeing him in Victory Lane again would be a cool moment.

The stakes for Kasey Kahne, Trevor Bayne and Ryan Blaney will be higher this weekend. They're the three highest-ranked drivers outside of the Chase. Bayne and Blaney probably need a win to get inside the top 16, but Kahne is only 10 points behind Kyle Larson.

Kahne will be starting in 23rd. He has two wins at Pocono over his career, with the last coming in 2013. With three top-10 finishes in his last four races there, he could potentially track down Larson.

With just six races left until the Chase begins, Kahne and his fellow drivers don't have much longer to secure themselves a place in the top 16.