Joey Logano Takes the Pole at Las Vegas as Team Penske Sweeps the Front Row For the Second Straight Week

        With a time of 27.939 seconds (193.278 mph), Joey Logano was able to take his first pole of the season as Team Penske was able to sweep the front row for the second week in a row. Logano was the fastest driver in the second round of the group session, but he would need to be the fastest after the third round. His teammate, Brad Keselowski, went out in the third session and took the provisional pole, but Logano was yet to run. Logano did run and he was able to blister the track record to take the pole position with Keselowski just behind him in second. Last week, Keselowski took his first pole of the season with Logano starting second, but the two flipped for this week. It seems Team Penske has the new group qualifying system figured out already. Like last week, this session was filled with a lot of tension. Unlike last week, this session contained three rounds instead of two. That meant twenty four drivers moved to the second round from the first and twelve drivers moved from the second to the third round. This meant a lot of drivers would be fighting to move on in the rounds and some notable drivers would be left out of each round. In the end, twelve drivers fought for five minutes to decide the pole and Logano stood tall with a brand new track record. It was a very key session for the season considering the schedule is dominated by mile and a half races and it was definitely filled with some of the best action ever in a qualifying session.

        The first round contained all the drivers attempting to qualify with twenty five minutes to decide who would be the twenty four drivers to move onto the second round. Denny Hamlin went out first and he ran a decent lap, but he would quickly be surpassed. Austin Dillon was able to jump to the top of the board early in the session. Dillon held the spot, but the battle was behind him for the final transfer spot. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, and other drivers were battling hard for the twenty fourth spot, but only one would take it. The minutes clicked by with the transfer position continuing to change almost every minute. Pretty soon, only ten minutes remained. With about nine minutes left, Brian Vickers jumped to the top of the board while some drivers were running their second runs to try and make it to the second round of the session. Soon, only five minutes remained. Teams were thrashing hard to get the cars cooled down on track as some cars rode along the apron. The minutes clicked by and only one remained. Tony Stewart was holding the twenty fourth spot, but the drivers behind him were hoping to advance. None seemed fast enough to make it through and Stewart took the final spot. Brian Vickers, Jeff Gordon, Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Joey Logano, Austin Dillon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and others made it through while Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, and others missed an opportunity to move to the second round. Now, only twenty four drivers remained in contention to fill twelve spots in only ten minutes.

        The second round began with Clint Bowyer heading on track first. Bowyer moved to the top of the board quickly as the rest of the drivers began to battle for the final transfer spot. The minutes clicked by and Joey Logano took the position at the top of the board with only five minutes left. The transfer spot switched around and Kasey Kahne was holding it as the minutes clicked by. Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, and others stood on the outside looking in, but time was still left. Carl Edwards was able to power his way into the top twelve with only a minute left. Others went back out looking for the spot along with Kahne, but they didn't look to have a chance. Kurt Busch and A.J. Allmendinger were the last two drivers running at speed. Allmendinger blocked Busch unintentionally and Busch was forced to stop his run. Busch was none too happy and voiced his displeasure with Allmendinger on the cool down lap for the two. The two pulled down pit road and the session ended calmly. Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer, Jamie McMurray, Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, Austin Dillon, Aric Almirola, Carl Edwards, Brian Vickers, Ryan Newman, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. moved onto the third and final round while Kasey Kahne, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and others barely missed the cut line. The final session would not be about making the cut line, but grabbing the pole for the Las Vegas race.

        This round would be different than the others. Instead of having two runs to grab the fastest lap, bad tire wear and track conditions would force the drivers to run one lap to decide the pole winner. Clint Bowyer was once again the first driver on track to start the third round. Bowyer jumped to the top of the board early on in the round. Only three drivers had been on track in the first two minutes, but that quickly changed. Brad Keselowski jumped to the top of the board two and a half minutes into the round with a track record lap. Just seconds later, Joey Logano blistered Keselowski's track record speed to take the provisional pole. All twelve drivers made it out on track, but only one minute remained to beat Joey Logano for the pole. The seconds clicked by and all the drivers finished their laps as the round ended. Logano was still on pole and he officially took the pole for the annual Spring race at Las Vegas. Logano will look to take this pole to a win on Sunday and he looks good so far.

        The Ford drivers have been extremely fast in qualifying this year. Brad Keselowski took the pole last week with Joey Logano qualifying second. Logano qualified first this week and Keselowski will start second. Along with that, these two have raced well thus far this year. It looks like Ford is back and these two could be championship contenders when it is all said and done. Austin Dillon continued to qualify well. After starting on the pole at Daytona for the 500, Dillon came into Las Vegas for the third race of the season to take the fourth place starting spot. Jimmie Johnson also will start fifth, which is expected of the six time champion. Others were not as lucky to start up near the front. Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth, two Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, missed the cut for the second round and will start twenty seventh and twenty ninth, respectively. It will be an uphill battle for these two, but Kenseth won this race one season ago. Tony Stewart, Danica Patrick, Kurt Busch, and Kevin Harvick all struggled for Stewart-Haas Racing in the session. All four made it to the second round, but none of the teammates made it to the third round. It will be another battle for these drivers, but Harvick won the race at Phoenix one week ago from outside the top twelve. Kasey Kahne, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Jeff Gordon, teammates at Hendrick Motorsports, missed the third round, but they all qualified within a few positions of the top twelve. It looks like the field is evenly dispersed from back to front as the series gets ready to race in Las Vegas. The Kobalt 400 on Sunday should be a good show. Will Matt Kenseth win two in a row, will Kasey Kahne redeem himself after a close second place finish last year in Vegas, will Joey Logano take the pole and win, or will another driver take the victory? We will have to wait until Sunday to find out.
(More Stats Down Below!)




Top 5 Qualifiers (With Times):
1st: Joey Logano     27.939 (193.278 mph)
2nd: Brad Keselowski     27.965 (193.099 mph)
3rd: Clint Bowyer     28.021 (192.713 mph)
4th: Austin Dillon     28.026 (192.678 mph)
5th: Jimmie Johnson      28.038 (192.596 mph)

Notables Not in Top 5 (With Times):
10th: Ryan Newman     28.134 (191.939 mph)
11th: Carl Edwards      28.185 (191.591 mph)
13th: Kasey Kahne     28.175 (191.659 mph)*
14th: Dale Earnhardt Jr.     28.181 (191.618 mph)*
15th: Jeff Gordon     28.181 (191.618 mph)*
16th: Kevin Harvick     28.184 (191.598 mph)*
20th: Kyle Busch     28.216 (191.381 mph)
22nd: Danica Patrick      28.340 (190.543 mph)
24th: Tony Stewart      28.494 (189.514 mph)
27th: Denny Hamlin     28.456 (189.767 mph)*
29th: Matt Kenseth      28.522 (189.328 mph)

DNQs (With Times):
44th: Blake Koch     28.926 (186.683 mph)
45th: Landon Cassill     29.000 (186.207 mph)
46th: Dave Blaney      29.010 (186.143 mph)
47th: Joe Nemechek     29.537 (182.822 mph)
48th: J.J. Yeley      29.827 (181.044 mph)
(*: All these drivers had faster times than drivers qualified ahead of them, but in each case the drivers didn't make it in the top twenty four or top twelve after each round.)



Credits:
-My Own Notes
-Statistics:
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/sprint-cup-series/leaderboard/leaderboard-qualification.html
http://racing-reference.info/getqualify/2014-03/W
-Image:
https://twitter.com/NASCAR/status/442108955662102528/photo/1