Logano notches third Cup pole position of 2024 at Sonoma

For the first time in 13 years, Joey Logano will lead a NASCAR Cup Series field to the green flag from the pole position in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.

The two-time Cup Series champion from Middletown, Connecticut, commenced the weekend in Sonoma, California, by being the 25th fastest during the series’ lone practice session on Friday, June 7. He then rallied by being the second fastest in his group qualifying session behind Tyler Reddick, where both were among 10 fast competitors to transfer into the final round of qualifying during the event’s qualifying sessions on Saturday, June 8.

During the final round of qualifying, Logano managed to both claim and retain the top-starting spot with a record-setting lap at 97.771 mph in 73.273 seconds, which was enough to remain atop the scoreboard ahead of Tyler Reddick and teammate Ryan Blaney.

With his accomplishment, Logano claimed his third Cup Series’ Busch Light Pole Award of the 2024 season and his first since doing so at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in early March. Logano had also started on pole position in this year’s 66th running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway and in the non-points All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in mid-May, where he won the latter’s event.

Logano’s pole at Sonoma was one that left the driver of the No. 22 AutoTrader/Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry smiling amid a season where he has recorded two top-five results and three top-10 results, including a fifth-place run at Gateway’s World Wide Technology Raceway a week ago, during the previous 15 events on the 2024 Cup Series schedule. With 11 events remaining in this year’s regular-season schedule, Logano is 14 points below the cutline to make the 2024 Playoffs and is also pursuing his first points-paying victory of the season.

“It’s nice to see some Penske cars running good again and the Fords as well,” Logano said on FS2. “Proud of the race team. We made a lot of changes overnight. We worked on [the car]. It’s nice you have practice where you can actually go back and think about it overnight and look at a lot of data and try to figure out smart decisions. [Crew chief] Paul [Wolfe] and the engineers, everyone did a good job at executing that. Got ourselves a pole on a road course with the AutoTrader Mustang. It’s an intense lap out there. You’re just on the ragged edge there the whole time, but excited and have a good starting spot. Got to capitalize on it now.”

Reddick, the driver of the No. 45 Monster Energy/23XI Racing Toyota Camry XSE entry, posted the second-fastest qualifying lap at 97.661 mph in 73.356 seconds and will share the front row with Logano. Blaney, the reigning Cup Series champion and Logano’s teammate at Team Penske will occupy third place and start alongside Chase Elliott. Kyle Larson, the 2021 Sonoma winner who scrubbed the tire barrier in the Chute and sustained left-side damage to his No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, posted the fifth-fastest qualifying lap. He will share the third row with his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron.

Daniel Suarez, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain and Ty Gibbs will start in the top 10 while road-ringers AJ Allmendinger and Michael McDowell will occupy 11th and 12th place on the starting grid.

Notably, Carson Hocevar was the highest-starting rookie in the field in 13th place while Christopher Bell will line up in 15th place. In addition, Bubba Wallace will start in 18th place, reigning Sonoma winner Martin Truex Jr. will line up in 21st place, Denny Hamlin will occupy 25th place on the starting grid and Gateway winner Austin Cindric will start in 28th place ahead of Kyle Busch.

Supercar stars Will Brown and Cam Waters will start 24th and 31st, respectively, for their first career starts in NASCAR’s premier series. Brown is piloting the No. 33 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry for Richard Childress Racing while Waters is driving the No. 60 Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing.

With 38 competitors registering for the event, all 38 made the starting lineup.

Qualifying position, best speed, best time