In a place that’s known for gobbling up drivers and spitting them out, a teenager was king for a day.
Joey Logano, running just his second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, was the fastest of 45 qualifiers Friday in earning his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole for Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Wheeling the No. 20 Toyota of Joe Gibbs Racing, Logano turned a lap of 124.630 mph to top former Bristol winner Kurt Busch, who is coming off a win two weeks ago at Atlanta Motor Speedway. AHN
“After last year, this is so awesome,” Logano said. “We struggled a lot last year, but to come through here the second year and get the [car] up front and start on the pole, that’s going to be pretty neat. Of course, pit position is going to be huge here, and track position is a huge deal too.” MiamiHerald.com
“I’ve always been fast, but I’ve always been caught up in a wreck or knocked the fender in and blew a tire or stubbed the nose and blew a motor. ... I walked into this race track [Friday], and I said, ‘I want an uneventful race.’”
Busch said new crew chief Steve Addington, who guided his brother Kyle to two victories at Bristol last season, made some last-minute changes that produced a surprising qualifying effort.
“We have our setups, and Steve Addington has his setups, and we’re realizing that there’s two ways to skin this cat,” Busch said. “So we’re trying to balance the best ideas from what we’re used to in the past at Penske Racing and what Steve Addington’s used to.
“We’re surprised by the lap that we ran. Second overall—it was Steve throwing a couple of things at the car last-minute that he was comfortable with, and they worked out.” NASCAR
Dave Blaney was the highest finisher among those drivers who were required to qualify on time with a third-place effort. Four-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson took the fourth spot, while his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, also a five-time race winner at Bristol, picked up the fifth position.
Juan Pablo Montoya, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Marcos Ambrose and David Reutimann completed the top-10. MiamiHerald.com
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Food City 500 at Bristol - Race Line-Up
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