For the second consecutive weekend, Team Penske will lead the NASCAR Sprint Cup field to the green flag. But this time, it’ll be Joey Logano going off from the pole position.
With about one minute remaining in the five-minute final round of knockout qualifying, Logano threw down a lap of 193.278 miles per hour to take the pole for Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway away from teammate Brad Keselowski.
It marks Logano’s eighth career Sprint Cup pole.
“I told Brad, ‘It’s one to one now,'” Logano told PRN Radio afterwards. “This whole Penske team is amazing. It’s a privilege to drive these cars. Two weeks in a row starting 1-2, that means a lot.
“Obviously, we haven’t won on Sunday so we have to figure that part out. But we got a lot of speed in our race cars and I’m really excited about it. These guys have been working really hard. It’s just a lot of fun to drive their race car and I can’t wait until Sunday.”
Keselowski, who won the pole last week at Phoenix, took the near-miss for pole in stride.
“I wouldn’t say I let him [win the pole], but he did a good job of executing,” the 2012 Sprint Cup champion said to PRN. “I was just a little bit off on my lap. But it’s good to have two good bullets and [Team Penske] has that with the 2 [Keselowski] and the 22 [Logano] this weekend.”
Clint Bowyer and rookie Austin Dillon will roll off from Row 2, while defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. start from Row 3.
Jamie McMurray, Aric Almirola, Brian Vickers, Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the Top 12, which made it into the last of the three qualifying rounds that took place today.
Narrowly missing that Round 3 cut were Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kasey Kahne and Sprint Cup points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr., who will start 13th and 14th respectively. Kevin Harvick, who was fastest in yesterday’s test session and won last week at Phoenix, will start behind them in 16th position.
Other notables include: NBC Sports’ own Jeff Burton in 19th, Vegas natives Kyle and Kurt Busch in 20th and 23rd respectively, Danica Patrick in 22nd, Tony Stewart in 24th, Denny Hamlin in 27th and defending Las Vegas race winner Matt Kenseth in 29th.
KOBALT 400 – LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
Starting Grid
1. Joey Logano
2. Brad Keselowski
3. Clint Bowyer
4. Austin Dillon
5. Jimmie Johnson
6. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
7. Jamie McMurray
8. Aric Almirola
9. Brian Vickers
10. Ryan Newman
11. Carl Edwards
12. Martin Truex Jr.
13. Kasey Kahne
14. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
15. Jeff Gordon
16. Kevin Harvick
17. Kyle Larson
18. A.J. Allmendinger
19. Jeff Burton
20. Kyle Busch
21. Paul Menard
22. Danica Patrick
23. Kurt Busch
24. Tony Stewart
25. Greg Biffle
26. David Ragan
27. Denny Hamlin
28. Cole Whitt
29. Matt Kenseth
30. Casey Mears
31. Josh Wise
32. Parker Kligerman
33. David Gilliland
34. Trevor Bayne
35. Michael McDowell
36. Alex Bowman
37. Justin Allgaier
38. Michael Annett
39. Ryan Truex
40. Reed Sorenson
41. Timmy Hill
42. Travis Kvapil
43. Marcos Ambrose
Did Not Qualify
Blake Koch, Landon Cassill, Dave Blaney, Joe Nemechek, J.J. Yeley