Logano on pole for Pocono

By Reid Spencer

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

LONG POND, Pa.

A ray of sunlight, a warming racetrack and a little sandbagging all helped Joey Logano claim the pole for today’s Good Sam RV 500 at Pocono Raceway.

After posting a lap at 172.055 mph (52.309 seconds) during Saturday morning’s time trials, Logano had to wait for 20 fellow Sprint Cup drivers to make their qualifying runs before he could claim the top spot for the race at the 2.5-mile triangular track.

The pole was Logano’s second this year. He has three Cup poles overall.

A patch of sunlight, which broke through the clouds after Logano made his attempt, may have warmed the track enough to prevent those who followed him from beating his time.

Kasey Kahne came closest, running his lap at 171.648 mph to earn the outside spot on the front row. Martin Truex Jr. (171.494), who preceded Logano in the qualifying order, will start third, followed by Cup points leader Carl Edwards (171.474) and Kurt Busch (171.468).

And, in fairness, Logano didn’t show his hand in Friday’s practice, when the qualifying order is set — slowest to fastest — according to practice speeds.

“About all of us looked at the schedule before we got here and saw that qualifying was in the morning,” Logano said. “There’s a lot of cars sandbagging [in practice].

A lot of guys were definitely shutting it down before they got to the start/finish line. The chance you take is, if it rains, you’re [out of luck].”

In the event of a rainout, NASCAR sets the starting order for the race according to practice speeds.

“I don’t know where we were on the chart — 20th or so on the speed charts in practice? Obviously, we had a lot more than that,” Logano said.

Kahne has a win and two poles in 15 starts at Pocono, but on Saturday, he was no match for Logano.

“Joey put down a great lap,” Kahne said. “Ours was good, but Joey’s was really good.

“If we want the pole, we’ll have to be a little bit faster, but still, it’s a nice spot for [today].

“So many things will happen [today]. We watched last week at Indy how it all changed throughout probably the last 40 laps.Kahne led a race-high 48 laps before the Brickyard 400 became a mileage race won by Paul Menard.

It’ll be like that again here.” Kahne said. “We’ll try to stay on top of it, make the right decisions and keep the car to where it’s one of the best cars throughout the race, and maybe we’ll be there at the end and have a shot.”

Jeff Gordon, who finished second to Menard at Indianapolis, scraped the wall on his qualifying attempt and will start 31st. Geoffrey Bodine, TJ Bell and Mike Skinner failed to make the 43-car field