• Associated Press

Jul 13, 2024, 03:13 PM ET

LONG POND, Pa. — Ty Gibbs will lead the field to green at Pocono Raceway, the site of his first career NASCAR Cup start and the track he hopes will become where he gets his first career win Sunday.

Gibbs turned a lap of 170.039 mph in the No. 54 Toyota on Saturday at Pocono to earn the top spot in the 400-mile race. Gibbs needs a win to do more than just knock the zero out of the victory column — a checkered flag would earn him an automatic spot in the NASCAR playoff field.

“It’s a really big advantage, especially for my pit crew having the first pit stall,” Gibbs said. “It’s really nice to have that spot to start in. But besides that, we’re really solid. I feel like it is what is. Hammer down and try to go win tomorrow.”

He will have some familiar faces chasing him from the start. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin start third and fourth at Pocono. Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron turned a lap of 169.661 mph and starts second.

The 21-year-old grandson of NASCAR Hall of Fame team owner Joe Gibbs, Ty Gibbs enters Sunday in solid position to make the 16-driver playoff field on points. There already are 12 drivers with wins who earned automatic berths — the latest was Alex Bowman, last week’s winner at the Chicago Street Race — leaving four open spots.

Truex is 13th in the points race, followed by Gibbs, Ross Chastain and Chris Buescher. Buescher starts 18th and Chastain 19th.

With six races left until the playoffs start, Gibbs knows he would rather qualify with a win than worry about how one bad race could knock him below the points cutline.

“Our goal is to go win and be smart outside of that,” he said. “Go get great stage points and go win is the biggest thing.”

Gibbs has yet to win in 71 career Cup races dating to his debut in the July 2022 race at Pocono. He has been steady this season, following a 17th-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500 with five straight top-10 finishes. Gibbs finished second at Darlington and followed that with a pole and sixth-place finish in the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600.

The 2022 Xfinity Series champion, Gibbs finished third last week at Chicago. He finished fifth last year at Pocono.

A two-time winner at Pocono, Truex will hope the track brings more success for him in his final full-time season as a NASCAR driver. Truex, the 2017 NASCAR Cup champion, hasn’t won this season and has just one top-10 finish over his past eight races.

“Just kind of been in a slump for a little while now,” he said. “It’s been multiple things, frustrating for sure. You name it across the board, it’s happened. The last three races, we’ve been crashed at the end by someone, and that’s frustrating. Dealt with a lot of things like rain and crazy things like that. Hopefully this is a normal, straightforward weekend.”