BROOKLYN, Mich. (MRN.com) – Joey Logano grabbed the pole for Sunday’s FireKeepers 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
The Team Penske driver earned his second pole of the season and 16th of his career. He turned a lap of 199.557 mph around the two-mile track to grab the top spot for the 15th race of the season.
“It just feels really good because the last couple of weeks we’ve come in second in the final round,” Logano said. “It’s nice to break through and get a pole.”
Logano started second last week at Pocono next to his teammate Brad Keselowski.
Martin Truex Jr. will start outside the front row.
“A lot of fun out there,” Truex Jr. said. “Slipping and sliding as the track got hot a slick. I like where we are with this package and tomorrow we’ll fine tune what we have, take the tape off and get dialed in for the race.”
Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five.
“We gained speed for sure as we went along today,” said Stewart, who will have his best starting position since third last year at Watkins Glen. “We’ll see what we have tomorrow to get race ready but I’m pretty happy obviously with the speed we have and where we’ll be starting.”
Ryan Newman, Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott completed the first ten qualifiers.
Other notables in the field include Brad Keselowski (15th), Jimmie Johnson (16th), last week’s Pocono winner Kurt Busch (17th), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (27th) and Kevin Harvick (29th).
It was an especially frustrating session for Harvick who had two laps basically waved off when caution flew for both times.
“Common sense was pretty low on when to throw the caution,” Harvick said regarding a caution for debris. “Debris up out of the groove. We’ll be fine. There’s really not much you can do about that.”
The start of qualifying was delayed by nearly 30 minutes as teams tried to get their cars through inspection. The new rules package in play this weekend was blamed for the slowdown of the process.
“The new rear skew rule that is being used this week which is different than what we’ve used this year seems to be the reason teams are having difficulties getting through the laser inspection process in a more timely fashion,” said Scott Miller, NASCAR vice president of competition.
Sprint Cup Series teams will have a pair of practice sessions Saturday afternoon. Sunday’s race from Michigan can be heard locally on Hot Country Z 101.7, with pre-race coverage starting at 11 AM.
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