Joey Logano Scores First Season Pole at Tricky Triangle

[media-credit name=”Credit: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”220″][/media-credit]Joey Logano, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota, scored his first pole of the season at the track known as the ‘Tricky Triangle.’ And his time trial lap for the Pocono 400 Presented by #NASCAR was tricky indeed, especially with some leftover speedy dry from a problem in the ARCA Series.

“The track was dirty and I really don’t know why but I think it was from the ARCA cars,” Logano said. “I saw a few cars with the rooster tail off the back of them so the first few guys had a hard time.”

“Even when I went out, I got to that trouble spot and got loose,” Logano continued. “I felt like I left a tenth and a half right there.”

“I felt like I nailed Turns Two and Three pretty good,” Logano said. “So, I was hoping to have been in the top five and it ended up being good enough.”

Logano ran a lap of 50.112 seconds at a speed of 179.598 miles per hour. This was Logano’s fourth pole in his 125 Cup Series races and his second pole in seven races at Pocono Raceway.

“I think my guys have done a really good job focusing in here from the tire test to the practice to get the car handling right,” Logano said. “We went down a lot of different routes with our set up and we just kind of found something that all of us like.”

“My Home Depot car is fast,” Logano continued. “It’s good in qualifying trim and in race trim too.”

“It’s exciting and I think the race will be good,” Logano said. “Anytime you can be up front and start with clean air is important.”

Including Joey Logano as pole sitter, Joe Gibbs Racing had all three of its drivers in the top five in time trials. Kyle Busch, in the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota, qualified fourth and Denny Hamlin, in the No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota, qualified fifth.

“We missed just a little bit,” Busch said. “You’re kind of tentative going out there knowing everybody has been a little bit slick, but a couple of guys started to back up their times from practice.”

“We backed up our time from practice too, but just a little bit off in qualifying trim for some reason,” Busch continued. “Solid lap.”

“We were on pace for the pole and just got loose in Turn Three and lost a bunch of time,” Hamlin said. “I wanted to get below 50 seconds.”

“We have a great car for tomorrow and should be up front throughout the day,” Hamlin continued. “Hopefully we can get the first win at Pocono on the new pavement.”

Carl Edwards, behind the wheel of the No. 99 Kellogg’s Ford Fusion, scored the outside pole position at Pocono. This was Edwards’ sixth top-10 start of 2012 and his fifth in 15 races at Pocono.

“Joey had to go show off for everybody and do what he did in practice,” Edwards said. “I’m telling you, I have to give Joey credit.”

“For me, it’s very difficult to run a fast lap yesterday and go through the night thinking about everything and come back a day later in pretty difficult conditions there in Turn One and back that time up,” Edwards continued. “I think it’s very impressive.”

“I’m extremely pleased that we get to start up front with our Kellogg’s Ford,” Edwards continued. “A lot of people were complaining about how long we were here and how much practice there was. I’m not complaining at all because we needed every day that we were here to get faster.”

“I’m pretty excited about the race.”

Paul Menard, in the No. 27 Menards/Sylvania Chevrolet, qualified third. This was Menard’s best career start at Pocono Raceway.

“Up to this point, this was probably the most important qualifying session of the year,” Menard said. “It’s going to be hard to pass and we’ve put a lot of emphasis on qualifying.”

“I felt like I did as good as I could have hoped,” Menard continued. “I’m really glad we’re starting on the inside.”

Josh Wise, in the No. 26 MDS Transport Ford, was the highest qualifying rookie, scoring the 35^th starting spot.

“It was really loose for me,” Wise said. “I’ve never been here before so we just got the car driving as good as we could.”

“We just put in a solid lap and got it in the show, so that’s all we’ve got to do.”