Joey Logano climbs in his car during qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images
Team Penske has this system down cold.
A week after Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski grabbed both front-row starting spots in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series knockout qualifying at Phoenix International Raceway, the Penske Ford teammates repeated the feat — in reverse order — Friday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
In the first three-session version of the group knockout time trials introduced into the series this season, Logano won the pole for Sunday’s Kobalt 400 in track-record fashion in the five-minute third round with a lap at 193.278 mph (27.939 seconds).
The Coors Light Pole Award was Logano’s first of the season, his first at Las Vegas and the eighth of his career.
“We’re all still learning what the best strategy is, when to go, when to cool your motor off, when to do all this stuff,” Logano said of the new qualifying format. “We have an idea what we want to do. We’ve studied it as much as we can.
“But every time we do this we learn something that we may want to do different next time… All you can do is find the biggest hole that you can (between cars) and make sure you lay down the best lap you can. That’s what I get paid to do.”
In the first qualifying round, which lasted 25 minutes and narrowed the field of drivers eligible for the pole from 48 drivers to 24, every driver who advanced to the 10-minute second round broke Kasey Kahne’s 2012 qualifying record of 190.456 mph.
Brian Vickers, who will start ninth, was fastest in the first round at 192.995 mph, but Logano topped that mark with his money lap in the final session.
Clint Bowyer qualified third at 192.713 mph, followed by rookie Austin Dillon (192.678 mph) and reigning series champion Jimmie Johnson (192.596 mph), who ran a lap identical to that of sixth-place starter Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. but got the higher position based on last year’s owner points.
Keselowski credited his equipment with much of Team Penske’s recent success.
“When you’ve got fast cars, it makes your life a lot easier, and Team Penske has done a great job of finding that speed in qualifying trim,” Keselowski said. “We need a little but more in race trim. I think we saw that last week in Phoenix (where Keselowski finished third) and on the first day of testing (Thursday) here in Vegas.
“We’ll get a better idea and read for that (on Saturday) when we get back in race trim (for practice), but for qualifying trim, I think we’ve got our cars really refined well for this package, and I’m very proud of where we are.”
Blake Koch, Landon Cassill, Dave Blaney, Joe Nemechek and J.J. Yeley failed to qualify for the 43-car field.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Las Vegas Motor Speedway – Las Vegas, NV
Kobalt Tools 400 Qualifying – March 7, 2014
1. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 193.278 mph
2. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 193.099
3. (15) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 192.713
4. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 192.678
5. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 192.596
6. (17) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 192.596
7. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 192.397
8. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 192.335
9. (55) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 192.26
10. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 191.939
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12. (78) Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet, 191.51
13. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 191.659
14. (88) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Chevrolet, 191.618
15. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 191.618
16. (4) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 191.598
17. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 191.496
18. (47) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 191.489
19. (66) Jeff Burton, Toyota, 191.435
20. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 191.381
21. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 190.934
22. (10) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 190.543
23. (41) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 190.503
24. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 189.514
25. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 190.396
26. (34) David Ragan, Ford, 189.893
27. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 189.767
28. (26) Cole Whitt, Toyota, 189.647
29. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 189.328
30. (13) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 189.261
31. (98) Josh Wise, Chevrolet, 188.851
32. (30) Parker Kligerman, Toyota, 188.838
33. (38) David Gilliland, Ford, 188.686
34. (21) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 188.429
35. (95) Michael McDowell, Ford, 188.271.
36. (23) Alex Bowman, Toyota, 188.166
37. (51) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, Owner Points
38. (7) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, Owner Points
39. (83) Ryan Truex, Toyota, Owner Points
40. (36) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, Owner Points
41. (33) Timmy Hill, Chevrolet, Owner Points
42. (32) Travis Kvapil, Ford, Owner Points
43. (9) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, Owner Points
Did Not Qualify
44. (35) Blake Koch, Ford, 186.683
45. (40) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 186.207
46. (77) Dave Blaney, Ford, 186.143
47. (87) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, 182.822
48. (44) J.J. Yeley, Chevrolet, 181.044
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