NASCAR at Richmond 2018 Qualifying Results: Martin Truex Jr. Takes Pole Position

Martin Truex Jr. earned the pole position for Saturday's Toyota Owners 400 with the best time in qualifying Friday at Richmond Raceway in Virginia.

Chase Elliott will join him on the front row for the ninth race of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin will start on Row 2 after finishing third and fourth, respectively.

Truex picks up his third pole of the campaign and 18th of his Cup Series career.

Here's a look at the top 10 qualifiers (via NASCAR.com):

1. Martin Truex Jr. (78)

2. Chase Elliott (9)

3. Joey Logano (22)

4. Denny Hamlin (11)

5. Kyle Larson (42)

6. Kurt Busch (41)

7. Erik Jones (20)

8. Jamie McMurray (1)

9. William Byron (24)

10. Kevin Harvick (4)

Truex fell into a minor slump in recent weeks, failing to finish better than 30th in his last two starts. He's typically one of the series' most consistent drivers, as evidenced by his five straight top-fives prior to the drop-off, so Friday's strong showing doesn't come as a surprise.

Fox NASCAR highlighted his qualifying run:

Kyle Busch arrives to Richmond riding a hot streak. He's won the last two races, the O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas and the Food City 500 at Bristol, and hasn't finished worse than third in his last six starts.

The 32-year-old Las Vegas native also owns a strong record at this week's host track. He's won four of his 25 Richmond starts with 15 top-five finishes. His last victory came in 2012, however, and he failed to advance beyond the first round of qualifying Friday.

"We've kind of lost a little bit of what our handle was there a few years ago when we were really good," Busch told reporters. "More rule changes to create parity takes away advantages, and that kind of knocked us back a little bit. We haven't quite figured out what it takes to get some of that back."

Meanwhile, seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson has endured a sluggish start to the season. He's finished inside the top 10 just twice in eight races, equal to his finishes of 35th or worse. That's left him 17th overall in the early standings.

He'll try to jump-start a return to form at Richmond, where he's won three times but has posted only seven top-five results in 32 appearances. He'll start on Row 9.

Looking toward Saturday, a dominant car has yet to emerge during race preparations. Kyle Larson showcased the most promise during the practices and he'll break from inside the top five, but it's hard to call him, or anyone else, the definitive favorite.

The difference between Truex and Alex Bowman, who qualified 11th, was two-tenths of a second. That suggests it should be a wide-open battle Saturday at Richmond.