Logano pips Kahne to Kansas pole

Joey Logano has taken his fourth pole position of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season setting the fastest time for the Spongebob Squarepants 400 at Kansas Speedway.

It is his 12th career pole and first in Kansas.

Logano topped the timesheets with a speed of 309.633 km/h (192.397 mph). Kasey Kahne was second-fastest just 0.008 seconds quicker than the other Team Penke Ford of Brad Keselowski.

“We just kind of swung for the fence in the last round and the car drove awesome,” said Logano.

“It’s not very often you get a car that’s just perfect.

“I came off Turn 4 and I didn’t know how to go faster than that. … It was a great run, our fourth pole of the season (also at Atlanta, Martinsville and Richmond). We just need to rack up some more wins.”

18-year-old young gun Erik Jones, who is substituting for the injured Kyle Busch was an impressive 12th. Jones, who had made a mid-race series debut at Bristol when Denny Hamlin suffered neck spasms, was fastest in final practice and then took pole for the supporting Truck Series race.

Last week’s Talladega race winner Dale Earnhardt Jr could only managed 17th in Kansas qualifying, although that was two places better than Hendrick team-mate Jimmie Johnson.

QUALIFYING : Spongebob Squarepants 400 – Kansas Speedway

POS.	CAR #	DRIVER	MANUFACTURER	SPONSOR	MPH	BEST TIME	BEHIND
1	22	Joey Logano		AAA Insurance	192.397	28.067	Leader
2	5	Kasey Kahne		Great Clips	191.911	28.138	–0.071
3	2	Brad Keselowski		Avaya	191.857	28.146	–0.079
4	78	Martin Truex Jr		Furniture Row/Visser Precision	191.782	28.157	–0.090
5	19	Carl Edwards		Stanley	191.578	28.187	–0.120
6	4	Kevin Harvick		Jimmy John’s/ Budweiser	191.299	28.228	–0.161
7	16	Greg Biffle		Cheez-It/Sponge Bob Square Pants Ford Fusion	191.015	28.270	–0.203
8	41	Kurt Busch		Haas Automation	190.853	28.294	–0.227
9	1	Jamie McMurray		McDonald’s	190.228	28.387	–0.320
10	42	Kyle Larson		Target	190.154	28.398	–0.331
11	24	Jeff Gordon		American Red Cross	189.900	28.436	–0.369
12	18	Erik Jones		M&M’s Red Nose Day	189.540	28.490	–0.423
13	11	Denny Hamlin		FedEx Freight	190.712	28.315	–0.248
14	43	Aric Almirola		Farmland	190.691	28.318	–0.251
15	31	Ryan Newman		Quicken Loans	190.557	28.338	–0.271
16	14	Tony Stewart		Bass Pro Shops / Mobil 1	190.510	28.345	–0.278
17	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr		Nationwide	190.496	28.347	–0.280
18	20	Matt Kenseth		Dollar General	190.476	28.350	–0.283
19	48	Jimmie Johnson		Lowe’s	190.282	28.379	–0.312
20	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr		Zest Ford Fusion	190.228	28.387	–0.320
21	15	Clint Bowyer		5-Hour Energy	190.188	28.393	–0.326
22	27	Paul Menard		Pittsburgh Paints / Menards	190.047	28.414	–0.347
23	55	David Ragan		SpongeBob Square Pants Aaron’s Dream Machine	189.760	28.457	–0.390
24	13	Casey Mears		Squidward Tentacles Chevrolet SS	189.175	28.545	–0.478
25	51	Justin Allgaier		Fraternal Order of Eagles	189.607	28.480	–0.413
26	9	Sam Hornish Jr		Medallion Bank	189.434	28.506	–0.439
27	10	Danica Patrick		GoDaddy	189.347	28.519	–0.452
28	3	Austin Dillon		Dow	189.162	28.547	–0.480
29	47	AJ Allmendinger		Dillon’s/SCOTT Products	188.917	28.584	–0.517
30	6	Trevor Bayne		Advocare Ford Fusion	188.904	28.586	–0.519
31	95	Michael McDowell		WRL / Larry the Lobster	188.904	28.586	–0.519
32	33	Ty Dillon		No. 33 Plankton Chevrolet SS	188.818	28.599	–0.532
33	26	Jeb Burton		Maxim Fantasy Sports	188.613	28.630	–0.563
34	35	Cole Whitt		TBD	187.748	28.762	–0.695
35	83	Matt DiBenedetto		Dustless Blasting	187.669	28.774	–0.707
36	7	Alex Bowman		Accell Construction	187.559	28.791	–0.724
37	23	J.J. Yeley		Dr. Pepper “I’m a Pepper”	186.451	28.962	–0.895
38	38	David Gilliland		MDS	186.393	28.971	–0.904
39	34	Brett Moffitt		Dockside Logistics	186.361	28.976	–0.909
40	98	Josh Wise		Phil Parsons Racing	186.245	28.994	–0.927
41	40	Landon Cassill		Carsforsale.com	185.141	29.167	–1.100
42	32	Joey Gase		TBA	185.052	29.181	–1.114
43	46	Michael Annett		Allstate Peterbilt Group	183.773	29.384	–1.317