Logano wins pole for Saturday night race at Kansas Speedway
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) Joey Logano will start at Kansas Speedway right where he left off.
The winner of last fall's Chase race drove his No. 22 Ford to a fast lap of 192.397 mph in the final qualifying round Friday, easily topping Kasey Kahne and Brad Keselowski to earn the pole for the Sprint Cup race Saturday night.
''Last year it took us pretty much all year to win one pole,'' said Logano, who has only finished outside of the top 10 twice this year. ''It's pretty special to be able to figure out these third sessions and still have a lot of speed in our cars.''
Logano was fast from the moment his team unloaded his car Friday, turning the second-quickest lap behind point leader Kevin Harvick during the early practice session. Logano was third on the speed chart during the afternoon session behind Erik Jones and Jeff Gordon.
It was the fourth pole of the year for Logano, but his first at Kansas Speedway.
''The line I ran here in the fall may not work this time. Just trying to figure out what's the fastest for your race car, and you never have two race cars the same,'' Logano said. ''You have to be able to adapt to what's new and have an open mind.
Kahne posted a lap of 191.911 mph. He was followed by Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr. and local boy Carl Edwards, who was posted the final lap of the last qualifying segment.
''We've been really good, spent a lot of time in race trims, trying to get our car to turn at the corner, make that work,'' Kahne said. ''Our final run was the best run of the day, so I'm happy with the car, the speed of the car, the engine and the guys for making it better.''
Harvick qualified sixth, followed by Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson.
Jones also made the final round of qualifying in his first attempt in the No. 18, which he's driving this week while Kyle Busch recovers from injuries sustained in a wreck at Daytona.
The 18-year-old Truck Series star made his Sprint Cup debut in relief of Denny Hamlin at Bristol, but Jones will be making his first Cup start from the 12th position on Saturday night.
''Not a bad ending there to qualifying,'' he said. ''We definitely had a better car than that, just didn't make the right adjustment at the end. But not bad. We made the last round, our Toyota is good in race trim. Hopefully we'll have a good run tomorrow in it.''
