Joey Logano earned his seventh front-row starting spot of the year in qualifying for Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway, qualifying second in the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford. Logano was one of three drivers to break the 206mph barrier in qualifying, turning a lap of 34.887 seconds (206.381mph) around the two-mile oval.
Logano was fast in each of the three rounds of knockout qualifying. He turned the second-fastest lap in the first round and the third-fastest lap in the second round. In the final round, Logano missed getting the pole by a mere 0.03-seconds to Jeff Gordon’s lap of 34.857 seconds.
“I’m really happy to have another front row starting spot and a good pit stall for my Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion, but I’m really getting tired of these second-place runs,” said Logano. “We’ve qualified second six times this year and only have one pole. And each time, we miss it by just a couple of hundredths or a couple of thousandths. This team deserves to have three or four poles at this point. But the good thing is we are getting upset about qualifying second. There are a lot of guys that would like to be in that position and have seven front row starting spots. On top of that, we have a really fast Shell-Pennzoil Ford in race trim. I like our chances this weekend for sure.”
The Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway will air live Sunday, August 17 at 1:00 p.m. ET on ESPN. Race coverage will also be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Channel 90.
