MADISON, Ill. — With a spectacular lap late in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session, Joey Logano won the Busch Light Pole Award for Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway by a wide margin.
The only competitor in the 36-driver field to crack the 33-second barrier, Logano covered the 1.25-mile distance in 32.817 seconds (137.124 mph) to claim the top starting spot for the second race in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 (3 p.m. ET Sunday on USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
RELATED: Starting lineup | Chase standings
The Busch Light Pole Award was the second of the season for Logano, who won the inaugural Cup Series race at WWTR in 2022. In winning his first pole at the track and the 35th of his career, Logano beat second-place qualifier Kyle Larson (135.980 mph) by 0.276 seconds.
“Honestly, I feel like I’ve had good cars here for qualifying — I just have always screwed up Turn 1,” said Logano, who is eighth in the Chase standings, 72 points out of the lead. “It’s nice to have a good clean lap.
“It’s in your head, right? Before you go out because you’ve had four qualifying sessions before where you’ve always screwed up Turn 1. I’ve overdriven it. I’ve underdriven it because of that.
“I hit it right this time, so that part was good. I was able to get through it pretty well and have a pretty solid (Turns) 3 and 4, and the car did what it needed to do. The car has got some raw speed in it, which is very encouraging for (Sunday).”
Logano is the only driver in the field who has finished in the top five in each of the four previous races at Gateway.
Chase drivers claimed the top 10 positions during time trials, with Logano’s Team Penske teammate, Ryan Blaney, qualifying third at 135.898 mph and last Sunday’s Darlington winner, Christopher Bell, earning the fourth spot on the grid at 135.767 mph.
Chase Briscoe was fifth fastest, followed by Carson Hocevar, Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs and series leader Denny Hamlin, who improved significantly from 30th on the speed chart during practice earlier in the day.
The remaining six Chase drivers qualified as follows: Austin Cindric 13th, Ryan Preece 14th, Daniel Suárez 15th, Tyler Reddick 18th, Chris Buescher 21st and William Byron 24th. Buescher’s No. 17 RFK Racing Ford failed inspection twice, resulting in the ejection of car chief Joshua Sisco and the loss of pit-stall selection for Sunday’s race. Byron enters Sunday’s race last in the 16-driver Chase standings, 114 points back of Hamlin.
Practice recap
Ryan Blaney set the fastest single lap in NASCAR Cup Series practice on Saturday afternoon, leading a Team Penske-affiliated trio atop the leaderboard with a best lap at 135.665 mph.
MORE: Practice results | At-track photos
Joey Logano was second (135.514 mph), ahead of Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry (135.501 mph), Connor Zilisch (135.371 mph) and Tyler Reddick (135.298 mph).
Blaney was also quickest in 10-lap averages, ahead of Logano, Carson Hocevar, Christopher Bell and Austin Cindric. Bell, last week’s winner at Darlington Raceway, posted the fastest 15-lap, 20-lap and 30-lap averages in Saturday’s 50-minute session.
Defending Gateway winner and current points leader Denny Hamlin posted just the 30th-best lap, with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe 29th. Hamlin showed more promise, however, in the 20-lap average with the fifth-best mark.
Contributing: Staff report