Joey Logano wrapped up the Busch Light Pole Award in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying sessions at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course.
Logano turned a best lap of 103.424 mph in the final round, putting the Team Penske No. 22 Ford in the top starting spot for Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM). The performance marked his third pole position of the season and the 25th of his Cup Series career. William Byron will start second in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a top lap of 103.300 mph. Daniel Suárez, Tyler Reddick and Austin Cindric completed the top five in order. Ross Chastain’s No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet veered off course during the final round of qualifying, making sizable contact with the barrier through Turns 5 and 6. Chastain will start 10th in Sunday’s Round of 12 finale, an elimination event on the 10-race playoff schedule. Aric Almirola did not post a qualifying lap in the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, and his team indicated to NBC Sports that it would change the engine before Sunday’s event. The No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Ford for Josh Williams was not permitted to qualify after three failures in pre-qualifying inspection. The team lost pit selection, a crew member for the rest of the weekend, and will have to serve a pass-through penalty after Sunday’s start. The No. 50 The Money Team Racing Chevrolet for Conor Daly failed inspection twice; a crew member was ejected and the team forfeited pit-stall selection. Allmendinger overall fastest in Roval practice AJ Allmendinger was fastest in NASCAR Cup Series practice at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course. Allmendinger, a regular in the Xfinity Series making his final Cup Series start of the season, pushed the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet to a best lap of 102.188. Earlier in the day, he won the pole position for Saturday’s Xfinity Series race on the 2.32-mile circuit. Austin Cindric was second-fastest in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford, making him the fastest of the 12 remaining playoff-eligible drivers. His 102.105 mph lap was best in the first of two practice sessions that split the 39-car field. Three more playoff drivers rounded out the top five — William Byron (102.091), Joey Logano (101.802) and Daniel Suárez (101.584). The sessions were dotted by a handful of single-car incidents. The most significant scrape involved Conor Daly, who lost steering in his No. 50 The Money Team Racing Chevy and clouted the retaining barrier exiting the backstretch chicane. The IndyCar standout was uninjured, but the crack-up forced a red flag with seven minutes left in Group B and curtailed his tune-up time for his Cup Series debut. Allmendinger, Tyler Reddick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. also had solo spins during practice and continued on.
