SONOMA, Calif. — Joey Logano claimed his third pole position of the season Saturday afternoon at Sonoma Raceway, turning a fast lap of 97.771 mph in the No. 22 Ford to better the previous track record by more than a second on the newly paved 1.99-mile road course in Northern California.
The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion will start Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 alongside 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, who was a slight 0.083 seconds behind Logano’s time of 73.273 seconds.
“I got a little loose up in Turn 2 and probably left a little bit out there, but it’s hard to hit a perfect lap every corner,” said Logano, a 31-time pole winner who also won pole position at Sonoma in 2011.
“If you can average it all out to be pretty good, it works out. It was great to see the Autotrader Mustang having some speed here in Sonoma. It didn’t seem too bad in race trim either, so hopefully, we turn this into a victory tomorrow.”
Logano’s only career road-course win came in 2015 at Watkins Glen International. His best finish at Sonoma is third, something he has done twice, including last year.
Logano’s Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney, the reigning series champion, will roll off third — both Logano and Blaney looking for their first trophy of the season. Hendrick Motorsports teammates Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson round out the top five.
All four Hendrick cars advanced to the final round of qualifying. William Byron, who has won three times this season, will start sixth and Alex Bowman eighth. Trackhouse Racing teammates Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain will start seventh and ninth, with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs rolling off 10th.
Current points leader Denny Hamlin of JGR will roll off 25th and his teammate, four-time and defending Sonoma race winner Martin Truex Jr., will begin 21st on the starting grid.
Two Australian Supercars drivers are making their Cup debut this weekend. Will Brown, who was third-fastest in practice, will roll off 24th in the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Cam Waters will start 31st in the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford.
“This race is gonna be a lot different than what it was in the past here,” Logano said. “You think about what it used to be here with a lot of tire wear. Now, the tires seem to last fairly long, so that can adjust the strategy quite a bit from what it used to be here. There are a lot of different options for the crew chiefs to try to make up their mind on how to play out the race, and time will tell.”
