NASCAR at Las Vegas qualifying, starting lineup: Joey Logano wins his second pole in three races to start 2024

NASCAR at Las Vegas qualifying, starting lineup: Joey Logano wins his second pole in three races to start 2024

Joey Logano won the pole for the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in qualifying on Saturday, putting down a lap of 29.291 (184.357 MPH) in the final round of qualifying to earn his second pole and third front row start to begin the 2024 season. Logano won the pole for the Daytona 500 to open the season, then followed it up with a second-place qualifying effort at Atlanta.

In doing so, Logano becomes the first driver to qualify on the front row for all three races to begin a season since Ricky Rudd in 2000. That year saw Rudd qualify on the outside of the front row for the Daytona 500 and then the next week at Rockingham before winning the pole for the third race of the season, also at Las Vegas.

Logano’s pole comes after and despite an impropriety on his qualifying last week, in which NASCAR found that the two-time Cup champion had been using an altered glove containing webbed fabric as a means of gaining a potential aerodynamic advantage. Logano was fined $10,000 for using gloves not compliant with SFI-approved standards, and NASCAR officials exhibited the gloves in the garage area on Saturday noting the safety and competition violations it presented.

Logano would end up pacing a qualifying session that featured extremely high winds and exhibited the out-of-box strength of both of NASCAR’s new body types for 2024. In addition to Logano, three other Ford Mustang Dark Horses — Austin Cindric in third, Chase Briscoe in sixth and Chris Buescher in ninth — made the final round of qualifying, as did four Toyota Camry XSEs in Bubba Wallace (fifth), Martin Truex Jr. (seventh), Ty Gibbs (eighth) and Christopher Bell (10th). Kyle Larson in second was the fastest qualifying Chevrolet.

While one Connecticut driver in Logano will lead the field to green on Sunday, another in Ryan Preece will be forced to start from the rear of the field. Preece crashed in turn two in the opening minutes of practice and did not make a qualifying attempt, and neither did J.J. Yeley or Justin Haley. Yeley’s car failed pre-qualifying inspection twice on top of a number of other issues, leading to the ejection of crew chief Bryan Berry due to the No. 44 NY Racing team’s lack of a car chief.

Derek Kraus, who is running a partial schedule this year in the No. 16 Chevrolet for Kaulig Racing, qualified 33rd for his NASCAR Cup Series debut.

Pennzoil 400 starting lineup

1. #22 – Joey Logano
2. #5 – Kyle Larson
3. #2 – Austin Cindric
4. #24 – William Byron
5. #23 – Bubba Wallace
6. #14 – Chase Briscoe
7. #19 – Martin Truex Jr.
8. #54 – Ty Gibbs
9. #17 – Chris Buescher
10. #20 – Christopher Bell
11. #9 – Chase Elliott
12. #34 – Michael McDowell
13. #47 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
14. #77 – Carson Hocevar (R)
15. #12 – Ryan Blaney
16. #99 – Daniel Suarez
17. #7 – Corey LaJoie
18. #45 – Tyler Reddick
19. #3 – Austin Dillon
20. #1 – Ross Chastain
21. #8 – Kyle Busch
22. #43 – Erik Jones
23. #48 – Alex Bowman
24. #71 – Zane Smith (R)
25. #6 – Brad Keselowski
26. #4 – Josh Berry (R)
27. #42 – John Hunter Nemechek
28. #11 – Denny Hamlin
29. #21 – Harrison Burton
30. #10 – Noah Gragson
31. #38 – Todd Gilliland
32. #15 – Kaz Grala (R)
33. #16 – Derek Kraus
34. #31 – Daniel Hemric
35. #51 – Justin Haley
36. #41 – Ryan Preece
37. #44 – J.J. Yeley