Joey Logano wins the Busch Lightball at Atlanta Motor Speedway
Joey Logano won the Busch Light Pole of the NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Saturday’s qualifying session.
The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series champion drove his first number one. 22 Team Penske Ford with a center speed of 177.374 mph, edging out teammate Austin Cindrick for pole position on the starting grid.
Related: Qualification results | weekend schedule
Couple Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Eric Almirola followed to round out the top five.
“No one really knows what they can handle yet, but hopefully we have a little bit of both in this thing and we can control the race,” Logano said after starting second of the season and the 23rd of his career. “Obviously Team Penske had a great day today and we’ll try to continue that tomorrow.”
Points leader Kevin Harvick finished the final heat in sixth place with a lap of 176.769 mph. Ford swept the top eight qualifying spots, with Kyle Larson taking the top driver position for Chevrolet in ninth and Toyota’s Christopher Bell completing the top ten.
“Hopefully it’s a convertible to race,” Logano said of Ford’s qualifying power. “I think it’s very clear at this point across the field that some manufacturers have gone into the off-season with some changes they’ve made to noses and so on. It’s very clear that’s kind of our wheelhouse – when you come to super-fast tracks or Bigger racetracks like Fontana, Michigan, Atlanta, Talladega and Daytona. I think those are probably going to be our strongest racetracks and that kind of showed up again today.”
tomorrow: Pictures on the right track | Atlanta 101 preview
Qualifiers weren’t immune to a handful of laps and skids headed in by BJ McLeod and Ty Gibbs in the opening round and Christopher Bell during the final round. Ford dominated the opening round, led by Logano. Eight of the top 10 cars that qualified for the final round were Fords.
The Ambetter Health 400 is scheduled for Sunday at 3 p.m. ET (FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). It is the fifth race of the Cup Series season.
