JOLIET, Ill. — Kyle Busch opened his bid for a second NASCAR Cup Series championship with a lap of 187.963 mph to win the pole Friday night at Chicagoland Speedway.

Busch and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin will start on the front row Sunday, and fellow Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr. will start in third position. Truex has four wins this season, and the Furniture Row Racing driver is considered the favorite to win his first Cup title.

Playoff drivers Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson took the next three spots.

Among the other 10 drivers racing for the championship over the final 10 races, Chase Elliott qualified eighth, Austin Dillon ninth and Matt Kenseth 10th. Jamie McMurray has the worst starting spot among the 16 drivers, in 19th.

n Darrell Wallace Jr. said he remains hopeful sponsorship can be found so he can drive the No. 43 car for Richard Petty Motorsports in 2018.

Wallace, 23, was expected to replace Aric Almirola in the 43 next season. Almirola is leaving for an unspecified team, perhaps replacing Danica Patrick in the No. 10 at Stewart-Haas Racing. Smithfield Foods, which had sponsored Almirola, said it will leave Richard Petty Motorsports to become a primary sponsor at Stewart-Haas next year, but Smithfield will not necessarily sponsor Almirola at SHR.

Wallace, NASCAR’s only black driver, made four starts for RPM this season when Almirola was injured. Wallace’s best finish was 11th at Kentucky.

INDYCAR: The IndyCar season title was by no stretch a lock for Josef Newgarden. But when he hit the exit wall to pit road at Watkins Glen, it blew the championship race wide open and put Newgarden in the worst possible position.

Now he has Scott Dixon lurking right behind him.

Dixon, the four-time series champion, has been in this position before. He went into the season finale ranked third in the standings in 2015, then won the race, which is worth double points. It tied him in the standings with Juan Pablo Montoya, and Dixon won his fourth title on a tiebreaker.

Heading into Sunday’s race in Sonoma, California, Newgarden is just three points ahead of Dixon. And he knows what he needs to do to claim the championship.

“If we win the race, we win the championship,” Newgarden said. “It’s an easy goal for us.”

Newgarden led the first and second practice sessions on the 2.385-mile, 12-turn track Friday, while Dixon was sixth in both sessions.

Team Penske has all four of its drivers in contention for the title, with Helio Castroneves, reigning champion Simon Pagenaud and Will Power sitting third, fourth and fifth.

They went 1-2-3-4 in Friday afternoon’s practice.