Joey Logano, Coors Light Pole Award winner for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway. [Credit: Matt Sullivan/Getty Images]
Richmond, VA – Joey Logano raced to his fifth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole in 2015 as qualifying set the field for Saturday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at the Richmond International Raceway, the race that concludes the regular season for the supreme division.
Driving the Shell Pennzoil Ford, Logano took the pole with a speed of 126.470 miles around the .75-mile oval.
“We weren’t able to put down good times during practice, but we kept working on it and got a little bit better at end of practice,” the young Connecticut driver said. “Going into qualifying we didn’t know how we were going to stack up. We were 12th or 13th in first round, and second in second round and even better in third round. I am proud of my team as this is a tough place to qualify because the track changes so much. My team gave me a fast car, which allowed me to do my part and get a good starting position.”
After leading the way in the first two rounds of qualifications, Matt Kenseth ended up second fastest in the Dollar General Toyota at 126.357 mph.
“We had a lot of speed in our Toyota Camry, but in the second round we were off a bit, so we tried to adjust on it,” Kenseth. “We got pretty close to the pole until I missed my mark in (Turn) 1 while trying to get too aggressive with the tires falling off. I did get real close to the pole but I didn’t do my job. And I am a little disappointed not getting it, but it is encouraging to have that much speed going into the race.”
Row two qualifiers were Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch with row three going to David Ragan and Kevin Harvick.
Trailing them were Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon.
Other notables were Ryan Newman 13th, Danica Patrick 14th, Kasey Kahne 20th, Paul Menard 22nd, Jeff Gordon 23rd, Aric Almirola 24th, Denny Hamlin 25th, Clint Bowyer 26th and Dale Earnhardt Jr. 29th.
Failing to qualify were Josh Wise and Timmy Hill.
Saturday’s race will be televised by the NBC Sports Network at 7:30 p.m. ET.
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