Yahoo Autos Logano surges to Sonoma Cup pole
Joey Logano will start from the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway. Logano earned the top spot with a lap of 97.771mph (73.273s). It is the third pole of the year for Logano, his second at the California road course and the 31st of his career.
Tyler Reddick, a California native, will join Logano on the front row. Reddick qualified second at 97.661mph.
Ryan Blaney qualified third at 97.566mph and Chase Elliott qualified fourth at 97.562mph. Kyle Larson completed the top five qualifiers at 97.542mph.
Larson “clipped” the tire barrier, by his description, in Turn 4 during the final round of qualifying. Larson, the 2021 winner at Sonoma Raceway, damaged the left side of his Chevrolet but said his steering wheel was still straight. On his second qualifying attempt, Larson went from the slowest driver of the group to earn a fifth-place starting position.
William Byron qualified sixth at 97.518mph, Daniel Suarez qualified seventh at 97.513mph, and Alex Bowman qualified eighth at 97.420 mph. Ross Chastain qualified ninth at 97.390mph, and Ty Gibbs qualified 10th at 97.113mph.
Quite a few heavy hitters did not make the final round of qualifying. AJ Allmendinger was the first driver outside the top 10, qualifying 11th.
Michael McDowell qualified 12th and Christopher Bell qualified 15th. Bubba Wallace qualified 18th and Martin Truex Jr. qualified 21st. It’s the third time in the last six races that Truex has qualified 19th or worse. However, Truex has won three of the last five races at Sonoma.
Supercars racer Will Brown qualified 24th for his Cup Series debut. Brown, in a third Richard Childress Racing entry, was third fastest in Friday’s practice session.
Cup Series championship point leader Denny Hamlin qualified 25th. Chris Buescher qualified 26th, Austin Cindric qualified 28th and Kyle Busch qualified 29th.
Cam Waters qualified 31st with RFK Racing. Brad Keselowski, the team co-owner, qualified 35th.
There are 38 drivers who will take the green flag in Sunday’s race. The last driver on the grid will be Erik Jones, who qualified last.
UP NEXT: The Toyota / Save Mart 350 at 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday (FOX).
