Martin Truex Jr. wins Martinsville pole; Chase Elliott, next William Byron

Martin Truex Jr., who retires from full-time racing in two weeks, took the pole in Saturday's qualifying at Martinsville.

Truex turned a lap at 95.951 mph, beating Hendrick Motorsports drivers Chase Elliott and William Byron. Truex was eliminated from the playoffs in the first round and Elliott and Byron are trying to finish fourth in the championship.

Chase Briscoe in a Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing was fourth, followed by Truex's teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, Ty Gibbs. Harrison Burton, who loses his seat at Wood Brothers Racing in two weeks, was sixth. Briscoe, Gibbs, Burton and Truex have already been eliminated from the playoffs.

Hendrick's Alex Bowman finished seventh, followed by SHR's Ryan Preece, Hendrick's Kyle Larson and Richard Childress Racing's Austin Dillon.

Joey Logano, already entrenched in the fourth championship group, qualified 12th – two spots ahead of Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney. Title contender Christopher Bell of JGR qualified 16th, while Tyler Reddick, already in contention for the championship, qualified 31st.

Denny Hamlin, meanwhile, had a short Saturday at Martinsville as he crashed during practice due to a stuck throttle. The damage to his No. 11 Toyota was so severe that JGR spent the rest of the session debating whether the car could be repaired or whether he needed a replacement vehicle.

His car was fast in the 33 laps he drove before he drove it into the wall, and despite his shortened session he finished third in the speed chart.

The team decided to repair its car, but either way Hamlin was unable to make an attempt to qualify and will start last Sunday.

Hamlin is below the elimination limit and can only reach fourth place in the championship with a win on Sunday or significant retirements from the drivers ahead of him in the overall standings.

Hamlin is a five-time winner at Martinsville but hasn't been in winning ways since 2015.

“Nothing from the past is guaranteed for the future. “Everyone seems to be doing their best in fall racing and we had some unfortunate circumstances at the end of the races here that kept us out of the winning ways,” Hamlin said. “That’s just part of it. You just hope the law of averages works.”

“It’s like anything with data and analytics, a stroke – anything can happen. You just never know. You just hope you’re on the lucky side of luck, right?”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.