Logano grabs pole at Kansas
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Kansas City, KS (SportsNetwork.com) - Joey Logano claimed his Sprint Cup Series-leading fourth pole of the season after topping the charts in Friday's qualifying for the SpongeBob SquarePants 400 at Kansas Speedway.
Logano, the driver of the No. 22 Ford for Team Penske, turned a lap at 192.397 mph for the top starting position in Saturday night's 400-mile race. It was his 12th career pole in the series, including his first at this 1.5-mile track. Logano won the most recent Sprint Cup race here in October. He also won the Daytona 500 in February.
"We just kind of swung for the fence there in the last round, and the car drove awesome," Logano said. "It's not very often you get a car that is just perfect. I came off of turn 4, and I didn't know how to go any faster than that."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Kasey Kahne will start alongside Logano on the front row after posting a lap at 191.911 mph. Brad Keselowski, who is Logano's teammate, qualified third, followed by Martin Truex Jr., Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick, the defending series champion and current points leader.
Finishing seventh through 12th in the final round of qualifying were: Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, Jamie McMurray, Kyle Larson, Jeff Gordon, the defending race winner, and Erik Jones, who is set to make his first career start in NASCAR's top series.
Eighteen-year-old Jones is substituting for the injured Kyle Busch in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Earlier in the day, Jones recorded the fastest lap overall in the two practice sessions (191.306 mph). He then won the pole position for Friday night's Truck Series race here with a new track qualifying record.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I thought it was pretty good," Jones said of his performance in Sprint Cup qualifying. "It was nice to make the final round. It was good for us."
Those drivers who did advance beyond the second qualifying round were: Denny Hamlin (qualified 13th), Ryan Newman (15th), Tony Stewart (16th) Dale Earnhardt Jr. (17th), Matt Kenseth (18th), Jimmie Johnson (19th), Clint Bowyer (21st) and David Ragan (23rd). This is Ragan's first race as driver of the No. 55 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing.
Danica Patrick failed to make it out of the first round and qualified 27th.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Brendan Gaughan was the only driver who failed to qualify.