Joey Logano has always been strong at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and although he likely had help from the disappearing cloud cover, and the shifting winds, the No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang will get to start Sunday’s race from the pole.
Last season, two of Logano’s four victories were secured from the pole position, something that the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion has done a total of six times throughout his 15-year career.
Posting a mind-boggling time of 29.024 seconds (186.053mph), Logano led the field by nearly 15 hundredths of a second in the second round of Saturday’s single-car qualifying session.
William Byron will start alongside Logano on the front row for Sunday’s 400-mile contest, after posting some solid short-run and long-run speed throughout practice and qualifying for the third race of the year.
Ryan Blaney will start from third place, while Ty Gibbs posted a solid fourth-place result in qualifying, the best start of his NASCAR Cup Series career. Kyle Busch will look to continue his hot streak with a top-five starting spot.
Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, and Christopher Bell will complete the race’s top-10 starters.
Alex Bowman, the defending winner of the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, will start Sunday’s race from 11th, after getting narrowly bumped out of the second round by Ross Chastain.
Denny Hamlin will start Sunday’s 400-mile contest from 12th, one of several notable drivers to be bumped following the first round of single-car qualifying. After being the quickest in the second group of practice, Bubba Wallace qualified 13th.
Kevin Harvick (14th), Martin Truex, Jr. (15th), Chase Briscoe (20th), Aric Almirola (21st), Daniel Suarez (24th), Austin Dillon (26th), and Ryan Preece (31st) were among the drivers with top organizations that failed to earn a top-10 starting spot.
Josh Berry, who will serve as a substitute driver for Chase Elliott after sustaining a fractured tibia in a snowboarding accident on Friday, had a major moment on his lap, relegating him to a 32nd-place starting spot.
Harrison Burton, Tyler Reddick, and BJ McLeod all failed to post a time in Saturday’s qualifying session, for a variety of different reasons.
Burton, driving for Wood Brothers Racing, failed to make a lap in qualifying after a substantial crash in the second practice group, slamming his No. 21 Ford Mustang head-on into the wall.
As for Tyler Reddick, his 23XI Racing team discovered an engine issue prior to the start of practice, forcing the team to perform an engine swap. The three-time NASCAR Cup Series winner will start Sunday’s race without any on-track time.
BJ McLeod is in a similar situation heading into Sunday’s event after his Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet suffered an issue with the transaxle, removing the No. 78 from the chance to get any on-track activity.
