HAMPTON, Ga. — Dodging the elements of Mother Nature in the form of lightening and threatening skies, Joey Logano won the pole for Saturday’s Quaker State 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at EchoPark Speedway.
But in addition to the weather, Logano and Wood Brothers Racing driver Josh Berry ran identical laps (30.979 seconds) with Logano awarded the pole based on owner points.
It was Logano’s first pole of the season and the 32nd of his career.
Logano believes starting up front is important at the 1.54-mile race track.
“It definitely helps at the start, for sure. Being up front and controlling this race is the name of the game. If you can get up there and solidify the top positions, I feel like you can stay there,” Logano said. “The thing is there’s a lot of what-ifs that play out in this race, a lot of cautions that maybe timed in a different way where it can jumble up the field. It’s hard to say you’re gonna be leading every lap of this thing. It’s kind of a hard thing to try to accomplish. The good thing is we controlled what we could today. I’m super proud of Team Penske, Roush Yates, Ford, obviously, to keep our Mustangs up there.
“It really shows the ability to repeat from car to car. It’s really hard to do. When you see we tied with the 21 (Berry) and I think all the other cars were all within a couple hundredths of a second, and you think of all the parts and pieces on a race car and how you can put them together, to make them all end up the same like that is pretty impressive.”
Not only did Logano and affiliated teammate Berry, take the top two spots, but fellow Team Penske drivers Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric will start in the second row.
RFK Racing teammates Ryan Preece and Brad Keselowski will share the third row, with fellow Ford drivers Cole Custer and Zane Smith in row four.
Alex Bowman was the best Chevrolet in ninth, while Chase Briscoe was the top Toyotal in 10th.
