Joey Logano and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion will start Sunday’s Oral-B USA 500 from the fourteenth position after posting a lap time of 29.318 seconds and a speed of 189.099 mph in Friday afternoon’s qualifying session at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The uncharacteristic result marks just the second time this season that the No. 22 Team Penske Ford did not advance to the final round of qualifying.
“Our car was tight trying to get to the bottom and as soon as I’d go back to the gas it was loose, so it’s really hard to fix that, especially when you’ve got a limited amount of adjustments,” said Logano. “Like I said before qualifying, Atlanta is a place that’s easier than most to make passes and work your way up, and I feel our Shell-Pennzoil Ford is fast in race trim. It’s a little bit of a bummer because we’ve made every round, except for the superspeedways up to this point. All good streaks must come to an end, but we’re obviously still in a decent position starting 14th and we’ll just work our way up there.”
The Oral-B USA 500 gets underway at 7:30 p.m. EST Sunday with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with a pre-race show at 7 p.m.
