Logano grabs Michigan pole

Joey Logano has won the pole position for the Pure Michigan 400 with a track record to edge out Kurt Busch in the process.

With a blistering run at 327.815 km/h (203.695 mph) around the Michigan International Speedway it is the sixth pole of the Penske Racing driver’s Sprint Cup career, but is the first for him at Michigan and first aboard a Ford.

It is the 13th time this year that a pole award has seen the track record broken, further underlining the strengths of the Generation 6 NASCAR.

“When you come to Michigan, obviously there’s extra incentive to win here and get poles — for one, Ford being here and Penske also having their headquarters here,” said Logano.

“Any time you can come here and get a pole for Roger, it’s huge.

“I think what you’re seeing here is we ran really good here in the spring, and you come back here in a short amount of time, and you’re able to use your notes you had from there. This is the second time we’ve come here as a team, and we were able to learn a lot from it.”

Logano’s speed broke the track record set last year by Australia’s Marcos Ambrose who today set the 26th fastest time.

“Well, we were supposed to be the last car to qualify, but it appeared that the inspection line got out of sorts; so we just went out and qualified when they told us,” said Ambrose

“The track may have warmed up a bit and got a little slower. It was certainly slower for us, and that’s disappointing. Usually you like those late draws, but today it didn’t help us. It was just really slick, and I was holding on.

“But, we weren’t bad in practice, and we’ll concentrate on our race setup tomorrow. We have a busy weekend with our Stanley car in Mid-Ohio and our DeWalt car here. We’re just trying to make the most of both races and hopefully get a win.”

LINE-UP: Pure Michigan 400 – Michigan International Speedway

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