Joey Logano grabs pole for Monster Energy Series race at Phoenix

By Tom Jensen
Published

AVONDALE, Az. -- Joey Logano isn’t about to let a little bit of controversy slow him down one bit.

Logano, who was involved in a final-lap crash with Kyle Busch last week at Las Vegas, won the pole for Sunday’s Camping World 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway (FOX, 3 p.m. ET).

In the third and final round of qualifying, Logano turned a lap of  137.321 miles per hour, which put the No. 22 Team Penske Ford on the pole for Sunday’s race. It was his 18th career pole in his 295th attempt in NASCAR’s top division.

“I’m just glad we finally got a pole here … but we’ve never really put the whole deal together in the last round,” said Logano, who got his first Phoenix pole in his 17th attempt.

Logano won here last November and will be tough again on Sunday.

Starting on the outside of Row 1 in Sunday’s race will be Logano’s quasi-teammate, Ryan Blaney, who ran 136.877 mph in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford.



“The last two weekends we have shown really good speed in qualifying trim,” said Blaney, who had his career-best qualifying effort. “It is nice to have fast race cars. You have seen it the past two weeks. Our Wood Brothers car and the Penske group have been fast in qualifying trim. That is something to be proud of as the two organizations work well together. We just needed a little more to get there but we were close.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 Hedrick Chevrolet wound up third, with Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray completing the top five.

Kyle Busch, who got taken out by Logano last week in Las Vegas, will start Sunday’s race from ninth.

“All in all just looking forward to being able to get a good run, get a good solid run here,” said Busch. “We haven’t had one yet this year. We need one. And just get our rhythm going.”

Eight-time Phoenix winner Kevin Harvick qualified a disappointing 23rd. Also failing to make it out of the second round were Martin Truex Jr., last week’s winner at Las Vegas who will start 16th, two positions ahead of seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson.

The biggest name who failed to advance out of the first round was Danica Patrick, who qualified 26th, worst of the four Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.

Sunday’s event will be the fourth of 36 races in NASCAR’s top division this year.

Brad Keselowski is the series points leader with 132 points. Behind Keselowski are Kyle Larson (131), Chase Elliott (129), Las Vegas winner Martin Truex Jr. (127) and Joey Logano (119).